ABSTRACT
Phase-Transfer Catalysis, “PTC,” technology is currently used in many commercial
manufacturing processes for pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical intermediates. The
pharmaceutical industry was one of the first chemical segments to take advantage of the unique
process performance attributes offered by PTC. A review article entitled “Phase-transfer catalysis
in the production of pharmaceuticals” was already published in 1980.1 At that time the authors
cited advantages of PTC in the following order: “solvent economy”, replacing sodium metal, NaH
or NaNH2 with NaOH and simplified workup. The authors also cited as challenges catalyst
degradation and catalyst separation/recycle. Since then, pharmaceutical process chemists have
expanded the advantages of applying PTC to commercial processes and have found innovative
methods for overcoming some of the challenges of commercializing PTC processes.
