Desafios da química analítica frente às necessidades da indústria farmacêutica

Abstract

CHALLENGES OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY IN FACE OF THE NEEDS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. The development of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) techniques in the last few decades has made possible the analysis of trace amounts of analytes from complex matrices. With LC, the analytes of interest can be separated from each other as well as from the interfering matrix, after which they can be reliably identified thanks to the sensitivity and specificity of MS. LC-MS has become an irreplaceable tool for many applications, ranging from the analysis of proteins or pharmaceuticals in biological fluids to the analysis of toxic substances in environmental samples. In different segments of Brazilian Industry mass spectrometry has an important role, e.g. in the pharmaceutical industry in the development of generic formulations, contributing to the growth of Industry and social inclusion. However, the Brazilian chemists until this moment don't have an effective role in this new segment of the analytical chemistry in Brazil. The present paper shows the actual scenario for mass spectrometry in the pharmaceutical industry, emphasizing the need of a revision of graduation courses to attend the needs of this growing market. INTRODUÇÃO As últimas décadas do século XVIII foram palco de desenvol-vimentos extraordinários que propiciaram o surgimento da quími-ca moderna. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), com a publi-cação de seu Traité Elementaire de Chimie (1789), tornou-se o prin-cipal protagonista da época de uma nova conceituação sobre como encarar os fenômenos químicos. A partir de suas concepções qua-litativas e quantitativas, a investigação química rapidamente tor-nou-se um ofício rigorosamente científico, com linguagem e metodologia próprias 1