The Pharmacat Consortium was established in 2006, with industrial partners AstraZeneca (AZ), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer, to promote and support stronger collaboration between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering - both first rate departments at Imperial. Syngenta and Lilly later joined the Consortium.
A number of strategic areas of importance to pharmaceutical research and manufacturing have been identified, that represent exciting and timely challenges for interdisciplinary academic/industrial collaborative research in the area of the catalysis of organic reactions.
The Consortium places special emphasis on collaborative Chemistry/Chemical Engineering approaches to:
- the discovery of new catalysts and new organic transformations
- the development of fundamental mechanistic understanding of the chemical and physical processes occurring during catalytic reactions
- the implementation of novel reaction engineering approaches to developing efficient reaction processes
The overall aim is to support pre-competitive research, specifically, to innovative chemical technologies to effect best routes and processes for the production of pharmaceuticals, incorporating quality-by-design, as well as better environmental credentials (green and more efficient). A second goal is to use this to provide excellent training for the next generation of scientists to be comfortable working across traditional disciplines.
The Pharmacat II Launch Meeting, April 2015
Industrial Chemists and Engineers: Jeremy Parker (AZ), Joe Martinelli (Lilly), Steve Fussell (Pfizer), David Sale (Syngenta), Katharine Wheelhouse (GSK), Neil Hodnett (GSK).
Chemical Engineers: Andrew Livingston, Donna Blackmond.
Chemists: Mimi Hii, Matthew Fuchter, James Bull, Chris Braddock, Paul Lickiss, Tom Welton, Alan Armstrong, Jordi Bures, Rob Davies.
Researchers: Florian Langmann, Daniel Scott, Szofia Heckenast, Ben Rowley, Eliana Grant.
Visit of Pharmacat Consortium to ROAR (25 September 2018). From left to right: Chris Tighe, Nathan Allcock, Neil Hodnett, Ben Deadman, David Sale, Jordi Bures, Katherine Wheelhouse.
Links
Pharmacat:
Imperial sites: