The Hindu Business Line : Microwave set to create waves in drug sector

THE microwave, now a popular way to make or warm food, may soon power its way into areas such as drug discovery and targeting, polymer technology, waste treatment and ceramics, according to Dr Rajender S. Varma, Senior Scientist at the US Environment Protection Agency.

Microwave or MW technology, almost 50-years-old, is gaining ground among researchers and industries as an icon of clean, green and safe chemistry that does away with halogen bearing solvents, according to Dr Varma, who works at the Clean Process Branch of the USEPA's National Risk Management Research Lab in Cincinnati. He was in the city on the invitation of AstraZeneca Research Foundation India, the R&D wing of global pharma major AstraZeneca.

According to him, green chemistry, which is about preventing pollution at the source of a chemical reaction or synthesis, "is among the most talked about subjects and there is not a single country that is not looking at it." It is about the least hazardous, faster processes in fewer stages than conventional methods.

It is very relevant to India where researchers and industries should identify and work with green technologies as this has a great potential in the country, he says. Engineers, designers and chemists should also come up with suitable devices and alternatives for scale-ups for lab efforts.

The MW technology has been used in reactions that can lead to a host of useful compounds. In the West, drug and chemical research companies are looking at such non-conventional technologies to cut down on pollution, and more importantly, to arrive at their results faster.

According to Dr S. Anand Kumar of AZRFI, this gives greater purity up to 90 per cent in less time. AstraZeneca is one of the subscribers to the technology for its research processes.

An Ibuprufen synthesising process won an USEPA award for adopting clean chemistry that turned out to be thrice faster. The dry-cleaning segment, too, is waking up to solvent-free possibilities.

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