“Our core business primarily revolves around custom manufacturing, particularly for the agrochemical industry. We have had success in the past and the outlook for the future looks positive too,” said Jörg Schneider, head of Marketing at Saltigo, Leverkusen, Germany, at this year’s Chemspec Europe. The fine and specialty chemicals tradeshow takes place for the 30th time this year, namely from June 24 to 25 in Cologne, Germany. Schneider is also convinced that Saltigo’s know-how, experience and technical ability could be beneficial in other sectors too. “If you’re looking for a reliable and competitive pilot- or production-scale supply of high-quality low-molecular chemical substances, we are the people to contact,” he said.
Saltigo, a subsidiary of the specialty chemicals company Lanxess, also offers non-exclusive multi-customer products including amines, heterocycles, phosphane ligands for homogeneous catalysis, and a variety of phosgene derivatives, particularly chloroformates. Saltidin, the widely used and highly effective insect repellent recommended by the World Health Organization WHO, is one such multi-customer product.

Competitive Advantages for Customers

As a custom manufacturing partner, Saltigo can deliver much more than just chemical synthesis. The portfolio of customizable service packages ranges from advance consultancy and ongoing professional project management through to support for process validation or registering substances in line with different national or international regulations, e.g. the EU REACh Regulation or Biocidal Product Directive. Saltigo’s many years’ experience and expertise is also borne out by the many FDA audits it has successfully passed in the pharmaceuticals segment.
“We are in a position to offer our customers what is probably the most significant benefit by mapping out an ‘intelligent’ production process, i.e. a path to the target molecule that is optimized in every regard, and then develop this and follow it through,” said Schneider. This can deliver a real competitive advantage for customers, e.g. as regards time to market for new products.
The exclusive synthesis of an active pharmaceutical ingredient under cGMP conditions is an example of a project currently under way that involves preparing the market launch of a new drug, planned for the fourth quarter of 2015. “We are ideally placed to produce the significant quantities of active ingredients required in this phase in our plants, and on extremely favorable terms too,” said head of Fine Chemicals at Saltigo Dirk Sandri, who also looks after the pharmaceutical business.

Sustainability and Cost-Effectiveness in One

The factors involved in achieving the optimal synthesis strategy can differ from case to case. For instance, if solvents, other auxiliary materials and energy can be utilized sparingly and potentially recovered at the same time as successfully increasing the space-time yield without impacting quality, and all the while generating fewer by-products that would incur additional costs for their disposal, then resource conservation and environmental protection can also deliver economic benefits. The same applies if synthesis can be performed in a few simple steps without costly specialist equipment or complicated cleaning operations. A further plus is that, with its sites at Chempark in Leverkusen and Dormagen, Saltigo is ideally placed within a highly developed integrated network, the benefits of which include reliable supply and disposal facilities on its doorstep. “There is no doubt that yield-optimized processes and network structures pay dividends when it comes to large production volumes, such as in the agrochemical and fine chemicals fields,” explained Sandri. What’s more, for solvents, stationary phases in chromatography and chiral auxiliary materials for asymmetrical synthesis, it is worth considering recycling and re-using, he said.

Customized Processes

Saltigo can also rely on an experienced team of experts for process development and optimization. These experts work in state-of-the-art laboratories and technical centers with the latest methods, equipment and systems on developing new processes and improving existing technical packages to specifically target customer requirements. Dr. Jörg Mohr, head of Process Development & Analytics in the Operations section at Saltigo, explained: “We can, for example, improve and simplify processing sequences so that larger product quantities are available quickly, such as for field trials or clinical testing for an active ingredient.” The yields from the individual reaction stages can also be optimized, potentially also alongside this. “More product in less time – that’s an investment that pays off for our customers many times over and is also a valuable skill that makes Saltigo stand out from the crowd,” said Mohr.