Reinventing fine chemicals synthesis: large-scale production of sparteine from lupin beans

Projektbeschreibung

Die Arzneimittelindustrie und Akademie mit unbegrenzten Mengen des natürlichen Stoffs Spartein versorgen

Das Potenzial von Spartein, insbesondere für die Arzneimittelindustrie, ist noch nicht ausgeschöpft, weil der Stoff kostspielig ist und schwer in großen Mengen vermarktet werden kann. Das in Portugal ansässige Unternehmen Spartax Chemicals entwickelte eine neuartige Methode für die großflächige Herstellung enantiomerenreinen Sparteins unter Verwendung eines Stoffs, der aus der Lupinaufbereitung in Abwasser gewonnen wird. Das kosteneffiziente Verfahren könnte große Spartein-Mengen liefern und gleichzeitig die Produktionskosten senken sowie eine ununterbrochene Produktion ermöglichen. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt SpartWISE untersucht die technische und finanzielle Machbarkeit und das Marktpotenzial der intensiven Produktion und Kommerzialisierung von Spartein. Hierzu werden alle Kosten für die Maßstabsvergrößerung bewertet, potenzielle Kundschaft ermittelt und ein Geschäftsplan für die Kommerzialisierung entwickelt.

Ziel

Spartax Chemicals, a newly founded Portuguese company, has developed an innovative process for the large scale production of Sparteine, using as raw material a compound extracted from lupin processing wastewater. Enantiomerically pure sparteine is an exceptionally good enantioselective ligand for asymmetric synthesis that has found application not only in the field of synthetic organic chemistry but also in the development of synthetic routes for the preparation of commercial drugs and drug candidates, with the most prominent example being the anticonvulsant drug (S)-Pregabalin.
The SpartWISE process was developed to address the market need for reliable sources of both enantiomers of Sparteine. It is a well-documented fact that there is a cyclic stock rupture of enantiomerically pure Sparteine at the main chemical vendors. As a consequence, many researchers, both from academia and industry, have been forced to look inter alia for suppliers in the Asian market, which often do not comply with the standards of quality necessary for R&D purposes, or do not deliver the requested product in sufficient amount in due time.
Contrary to the state of the art approach, which relies on the cumbersome extraction and purification of small amounts of (-)-Sparteine available from a leguminous shrub, the SpartWISE technology offers a cost-effective process that can make this compound available on kilogram-scale with drastic reduction of production costs and with continuous production. Moreover, it also generates the even scarcer enantiomer (+)-Sparteine.
Our goal for the Phase 1 is to assess the feasibility and market potential for the large scale production and commercialisation of Sparteine. For that purpose, we will (a) assess all the costs of the scaling-up, (b) investigate the prospective customers for our products and (c) develop a detailed business plan for commercialisation.