QDIS Blog

The announcement of Pfizer laying off 10,000 people got me to thinking about recent big pharma who have also had layoff recently.

• Bayer AG to lay off 800 US Workers
• Eli Lilly to reduce its workforce by 6%
• Eli Lilly Abandons Prince William Project - washingtonpost.com
• Lilly Buyout to Cut All Icos Jobs
• Merck to Cut 11% of Staff, Close or Sell Five Plants: 7,000 Jobs to be Cut

Here are others I expect to make announcements about layoffs and downsizing in the first six months of 2007.

• Bristol-Myers Squib and Sanofi-Anvetis depending on the outcome of the decision on generic version of plavix.
• GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis will likely lay off sales force to keep up with other pharma companies

If you know of others that I’ve overlooked, pleas leave a comment.

Unfortunately, I think this is going to continue to be an issue for the foreseeable future. The drive to acquire pipelines resulting in mergers which then leads to layoffs and downsizing. It use to be that you could get a job with a major pharmaceutical company and work for them for years. Now, there is a constant threat of not having a job in two weeks. And it continues to amaze me how upper management can continue to complain about lack of loyalty of their employees. How do you expect employees to be loyal if they don’t know if they will have a job two week from now?!

Technorati Tags: down-sizing, layoffs, pharmaceutical companies

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One of the omnipresent tasks in organic chemistry is how to work up a reaction. One of my pet peeves is the many articles that say something along the lines of “worked up in the usual manner” or “extracted with toluene” and no further information is given such as the amount or number of times the extraction was performed. It was interesting to me to see an article talking about the extraction process and how the extraction of not only the product, but also the original reaction solvent is often of immense import in downstream processing such as washing or crystallization.

Removal of Reaction Solvent by Extractive Workup: Survey of Water and Solvent Co-extraction in Various Systems (abstract) Delhaye, L., Ceccato, A., Jacobs, P., Kottgen, C., and Merschaert, A.
Org. Process Res. Dev., 11, 1, 160 - 164, 2007, 10.1021/op060154k

This article looks at a variety of reaction solvents; DMSO, DMF, NMP, DMAc, TMU, DMI, THF, 1,4-dioxane, diglyme, and acetonitrile and how they perform with extraction solvents such as toluene, EtOAc, iPrOAC, 1-chlorobtuane and heptane in aqueous solutions such as water and salt water.

The article is well wroth reading and noting for future use.

This is in the first issue of the journal for this year and is available to everyone. Typically for some ACS journals the first issue of the year is free and available to everyone.

Removal of Reaction Solvent by Extractive Workup: Survey of Water and Solvent Co-extraction in Various Systems (pdf) or alternative html

Here is the Supporting Info.

Technorati Tags: extraction solvents, solvents

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Well it was inevitable with the number of mergers Pfizer has gone through in the last few years that major changes were going to occur.

PharmaLive: Pfizer Announces Priorities to Drive Improved Performance, Position Company for Future Success and Enhance Total Shareholder Return

This ariclefrom PR Newswire is basically a PR release that attempts to paint the picture in the brightest possible terms. Bloomberg on the other hand had a different sort of title for its coverage.

Pfizer to Cut Up to $1 Billion in Costs, Fire 10,000

This means Pfizer will be laying off 10% of its workforce worldwide! This is in additional to the announced lay-offs of their sales force announced late last year. They are also closing plants in Brooklyn, NY; Omaha, NE, research operations in Ann Arbor and Kalamzoo, MI and in Nagoya Japan and Ambroise, France. THis will bring the number of plants from 93 in 2003 to only 48 by 2008 or almost 50% decrease in the number of plants.

It is sad to me to see loyal employees looked at as an expense rather than an asset. And then to add insult to injury, many times, CEO’s get paid exorbitant bonuses for getting rid of employees aka cutting costs.

I truly wish those at Pfizer who will soon be looking for another job the best.

Technorati Tags: down-sizing, Pfizer, pharma sales force, pharmaceutical companies, layoffs

Email Ed Vawter

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One of the omnipresent tasks in organic chemistry is how to work up a reaction. One of my pet peeves is the many articles that say something along the lines of “worked up in the usual manner” or “extracted with toluene” and no further information is given such as the amount or number of times the extraction was performed. It was interesting to me to see an article talking about the extraction process and how the extraction of not only the product, but also the original reaction solvent is often of immense import in downstream processing such as washing or crystallization.

Removal of Reaction Solvent by Extractive Workup: Survey of Water and Solvent Co-extraction in Various Systems (abstract) Delhaye, L., Ceccato, A., Jacobs, P., Kottgen, C., and Merschaert, A.
Org. Process Res. Dev., 11, 1, 160 - 164, 2007, 10.1021/op060154k

This article looks at a variety of reaction solvents; DMSO, DMF, NMP, DMAc, TMU, DMI, THF, 1,4-dioxane, diglyme, and acetonitrile and how they perform with extraction solvents such as toluene, EtOAc, iPrOAC, 1-chlorobtuane and heptane in aqueous solutions such as water and salt water.

The article is well wroth reading and noting for future use.

This is in the first issue of the journal for this year and is available to everyone. Typically for some ACS journals the first issue of the year is free and available to everyone.

Removal of Reaction Solvent by Extractive Workup: Survey of Water and Solvent Co-extraction in Various Systems (pdf) or alternative html

Here is the Supporting Info.

Technorati Tags: extraction solvents, solvents

Email Ed Vawter

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I’ve written before about MeTHF and though I’d pass along some information I recently came across in the journal Org. Proc Res and Dev.

Solvent Applications of 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran in Organometallic and Biphasic Reactions (abstract)
Aycock, D.F. Org. Process Res. Dev., 11, 1, 156 - 159, 2007, 10.1021/op060155c

Luckily for most, this is in the first issue of the year and is avaiable to everyone. Typically, it is for subscribers only. Free full aticle link Solvent Applications of 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran in Organometallic and Biphasic Reactions (pdf) or an alternate html.

I should point out though that the article is by David F. Aycock who works for Penn Speciality Chemicals and is a primary supplier of MeTHF.

There are several factors that make it such an interesting solvent.

• Unlike THF, it is not completely water miscible and does not readily form emulsions or rag layers.
• Its water solubility is low, 4 g per 100 g water.
• Moderate boiling point of 65.7 °C.
• Available from readily renewable resources (2-furaldehyde from corncobs).
• Forms azetropes with several solvents including water (10.6% water).
• Three times more stable than THF to 5N HCl at 60 °C.
• About the sme tendency as THF to form peroxides.
• Works well for forming Grignard reagents. Can form much more concentrated solutions than is possible with THF.
• Is a suitable replacement for dichloromethane.
• Effective for extracting polar alcohols such as 2-propanol from water. Two extractions with equal volumes extracted 94% of 2-propanol from water. Only 68% was removed using toluene.

On the downside though, this solvent is significantly more expensive than THF. Penn makes the argument though that you don’t have to use an extraction solvent that you must use with THF or that you can make more concentrated solutions of Grignard and so therefore use less solvent.

It is a good article and well worth reading and noting for future use for all chemists.

You can also view other articles in this free issue of Org. Proc Res. & Dev.

Other Resources

Products”>Penn Specialty Chemical Inc. > Products MeTHF
Methyltetrahydrofuran: How to Recover and Dry MeTHF Batchwise (pdf)
Penn Specialty Chemicals Inc.
ChemExper - catalog of chemical suppliers, physical characteristics and search engine (methyltetrahydrofuran)

Technorati Tags: MeTHF, PennSpeciality Chemicals, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran

Email Ed Vawter

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