VCU Professor Frank Gupton Honored by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable

[CBriddell]

The Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry will be presented October 25, 2019 to Prof. B. Frank Gupton at the NESACS Process Chemistry Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The award, established in 2016 by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable, recognizes excellence in the research, development and execution of pharmaceutical green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety and efficiency improvements over current technologies.

Professor Gupton holds the Floyd D. Gottwald Jr. Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is being honored for his achievements “Increasing Access to Global Health Care through Process Intensification”. Gupton helped to create the Medicines for All Institute, with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates, to address access to affordable medications in developing countries. By developing innovative new manufacturing processes for drugs that treat diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, the Institute has been able to significantly lower the cost of manufacturing medicines leading to reduced cost and greater availability for patients.

Prof. Gupton’s work exploits catalysis and flow chemistry to maximize process efficiency and decrease the environmental impact of drug manufacture. Early results have been impressive. For example, Gupton and his team were able to use increase the yield of manufacturing an HIV drug from 53% to 91%, reducing waste and saving 30-40% in raw material costs. Gupton also recently developed a novel approach to producing Fluconazole, an antifungal medication, using a flow Grignard process. The new process mitigates the safety risks of standard Grignards, reduces material use, and is a more efficient route that could be broadly applied to other drugs.

Before his work at VCU, Gupton had a distinguished industrial career at Celanese and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.

Nominations are now open for the 2020 Peter J. Dunn Award, recognizing the best of pharmaceutical Green Chemistry. Submissions should highlight impact relative to the principles of green chemistry. The 2020 award will be presented at the 24th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Seattle, Washington June 16-18, 2020 and the winner will be invited to present their green chemistry innovation during the conference. The award reimburses expenses up to $2,500 for conference attendance. Industrial chemists are encouraged to apply.

For more information on eligibility and to download the nomination form go to www.acsgcipr.org/educating-leaders#award.