The Swiss Chemical Society has awarded the Sandmeyer Award 2012 to a research team from Solvias. Working for Sanofi Pasteur, the team developed an innovative, efficient and fully synthetic process for protoporphyrin IX, a precursor of hemoglobin.

The research team is made up of Dr. Dirk Spielvogel, Dr. Dietmar Flubacher, Dr. Andreas Boudier, Markus Müller and Dr. Pierre Martin from the Chemical Development and Catalysis department at Solvias.

Protoporphyrin IX is an essential co-factor in the biotechnological vaccine production process at Sanofi Pasteur. Changes to the law relating impurities of animal origin made it impossible to use this substance, which is extracted from blood. However, the researchers found an effective alternative in just a few months: they developed a fully synthetic means of access, which resulted - among other things - in the first substance samples for biotechnological process validation. Thanks to these efforts, the team entered new conceptual territory in the synthesis of porphyrins.

The award is sponsored by KPMG.