Biocatalysis for synthesis of pharmaceuticals

Chirality is a key factor in the safety and efficacy of many drug products and thus the production of single enantiomers of drug intermediates and drugs has become important and state of the art in the pharmaceutical industry. There has been an increasing awareness of the enormous potential of microorganisms and enzymes (biocatalysts) for the transformation of synthetic chemicals with high chemo-, regio- and enatioselectivities providing products in high yields and purity. In this article, biocatalytic processes are described for the synthesis of key chiral intermediates for development pharmaceuticals.