Alfa Chemistry is highlighting its portfolio of biobased pharmaceutical chemicals for pharmaceutical and biotechnology researchers investigating natural products and their potential role in drug discovery. The portfolio provides access to compounds derived from biological sources, including plants, microorganisms, and animals, for research involving natural-product chemistry, lead evaluation, and structure–activity relationship studies.
Natural products have remained an important source of pharmaceutical chemistry. In a comprehensive analysis of drugs approved worldwide from January 1981 through September 2019, Newman and Cragg reported that, among 185 small-molecule anticancer agents in the 1981–2019 period, 33.5% were classified as natural products or natural-product derivatives. When synthetic compounds based on natural-product pharmacophores and natural-product mimics were also included, the proportion reached 64.9%.
For researchers, identifying a promising natural-product lead is only one part of the process. Further investigation may require sufficient material for structural characterization, analytical studies, structure–activity relationship research, and other stages of lead evaluation. Compounds occurring at low concentrations in their original biological sources can create additional challenges when researchers need material beyond the quantities available from the source itself.
Alfa Chemistry’s biobased pharmaceutical chemicals portfolio provides access to a range of compounds associated with natural-product pharmaceutical research, including:
“Natural products offer researchers a diverse range of chemical structures for pharmaceutical investigation,” said a senior scientist at Alfa Chemistry. “Providing access to biobased pharmaceutical chemicals can support research beyond initial compound discovery, including analytical characterization, structure–activity studies and evaluation of potential leads.”
The portfolio is intended for pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organizations, academic research groups, and laboratories working with natural products and bioactive compounds. All products are provided for research use only.
About Alfa Chemistry
Alfa Chemistry is a global chemical supplier and contract research organization (CRO) providing chemical products, analytical services, and technical support for research and industrial applications. With expertise in organic chemistry, material chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and analytical testing, Alfa Chemistry serves customers across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food, consumer product and other industries.
