A few of the articles in this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:
- Cover: "The chemical search for better white light" (by Mitch Jacoby)
- "Introducing the new Dow" (by Alex Tullo)
- Blockchain! (by Neil Savage)
- looking forward to the American Chemical Society coming up with ACSCoin in three years
- Noramco is making synthetic THC? (by Michael McCoy)
- Some d00d yapping about professional jealousy
- I dunno, "meta-meat" doesn't sound very tasty
I have seen a pilot plant setup for CBD production on 1 kilo scale, the footprint is small and the hemp variant used is not controlled material because it contains no THC. I cannot go into details but supercritical setup is not required, a simple extraction with a very cheap low toxicity solvent is required, then decarboxylation of the extract, spinning band column vacuum distillation followed by recrystallization of the distillate. I think no synthetic method can mach that in terms of cost of materials, low risk and high-robustness of the method, even if the hemp plant contains just few % of CBD by weight.
ReplyDeleteTHC is harder because it does not like to crystallize even after distillation, some tricks have to be used (which I cannot discuss) to get around the purification problem. Since menthanedienol sunthesis on large scale has been developed, making THC by a synthetic route is viable. In the end though, the companies that secure FDA non-generic approval in US are not pushed for the lowest cost of production because the cost of the active substance is a small fraction of the cost of a non-generic medication. THC is very active so you need only a little, and even less active compound like CBD has active dose in the 100mg range. (Of course once they put it into facial lotions and rash-treating ointments, the price will need to be reasonable).
Looks like Dow is going the way of Pfizer and big pharma - zero interest in any long-term R&D beyond the next few quarters.
ReplyDeleteGreat article chemjobber, I really like it
ReplyDeleteYour "I dunno, "meta-meat" doesn't sound very tasty" links to the professional jealousy article.
ReplyDeleteThanks, fixed
ReplyDelete