I joined Alcami in August of 2016.
What is your role?
I am a Scientist in Chemical Research & Development at Alcami's Germantown, WI site.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Solving complex problems and translating the solutions from small scale work in R&D to the manufacturing scale. Knowing that our work improves the efficiency and, most importantly, the quality of the APIs that we produce is very rewarding.
Completing the first proof-of-concept continuous flow project in Alcami.
How do you see those accomplishments affecting the pharmaceutical industry?
Continuous flow chemistry allows for multi-kilogram manufacturing with a much smaller manufacturing footprint, giving a huge potential for savings in catalyst, solvent and waste. As an example, the project I worked on could save more than $2 million dollars per year by replacing an expensive rare metal catalyst with nickel, an inexpensive and common metal. Additional benefits include being able to re-use the catalyst, as opposed to the current process in which the catalyst is discarded as waste. Overall we’ve designed a more efficient and greener process and look forward to the implementation of the technologies necessary to move this from proof-of-concept R&D work to a full-fledged continuous manufacturing process!