In 1746 J. Roebuck manufactured the first ever catalyst creating sulfuric acid in a lead chamber that was used in the industry (John,n.d.). Ever since then, catalyst have been used in industrial productions and pharmaceutical production to increase the yield of products and lower the cost of production. Catalyst provides other pathways of chemical reactions to decrease the activation energy and directs the reaction towards generating useful products. The use of pharmaceutical catalysis started when insulin and penicillin was discovered in the 1920s and 30s. The mass production of these medicine pushed the use of catalyst for a more effective production. Penicillin was known as the “wonder drug” in the Second World War, it helped to save millions of lives during the war; hence, an effective manufacture process for the drug was extremely crucial. Penicillin G Acylase was the earliest and most successful example of an …show more content…
Today, one of the most common use of biocatalyst is in the synthesis of Januvia, a medicine which treats type II diabetes. The enzymatic process provides a more eco-friendly production while increasing the yield and eliminate the need for a metal catalyst. The original way of producing Januvia was to use rhodium to catalyze the asymmetric hydrogenation to produce the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), sitagliptin (Taylor, 2012). This way of production required a high pressured hydrogen environment and the use of a metal catalyst. The final stage of production also required an energy consuming recrystallization step to take away the remaining catalyst. I In order to have a more efficient production, Merck and Codexis, two pharmaceutical companies, mutated transaminase enzyme to catalysis the transfer of amino group. The use of this enzyme helps improve the yield for sitagliptin by converting ketone to the desired amine