AN N T HAY ER /C& EN
NEWS OF THE WEEK
STABILITY SOUGHT IN FINE CHEMICALS CPhI: Suppliers hope pharmaceutical chemicals business will find level ground
F
INE AND CUSTOM chemicals suppliers searched
for new business at CPhI, the annual pharmaceutical ingredients conference, which took place in Frankfurt, Germany, last week. Although attendance was up and conference traffic was brisk, executives were only guardedly optimistic that business is returning. Customers, many said, are being careful about how, when, and where they spend any of the limited investment dollars that are back in play. Saltigo CEO Wolfgang Schmitz is among the more bullish custom chemical executives, telling C&EN that the pharmaceutical market is strong this year. Success has hinged on “an improved pipeline and interesting molecules,” he said. Schmitz and other executives remarked that the market for agricultural chemicals, which softened considerably in 2010, also improved in 2011. As the conference took place, European government leaders were scrambling to avoid imminent financial
Frankfurt attendees looked high and low for opportunities.
FATTY ACIDS DO A HEART GOOD
Leinwand studied Burmese pythons for clues about the molecular triggers of healthy heart growth. TH OMAS COOPER
PHYSIOLOGY: Molecules trigger
AUDIO ONLINE
healthy heart growth to help python metabolism
A
SPECIFIC MIXTURE of fatty acids circulat-
ing in the blood of pythons is responsible for an increase in the size of the animals’ hearts after feeding, according to a new report (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1210558). The identification of these molecules, which trigger pythons’ heart cells to expand so that the snakes can metabolize big meals, could lead to future therapies for heart disease in humans. Although they sometimes fast for long periods between meals, when Burmese pythons feed, they can swallow prey as large as a deer. To accommodate such feasts, the snakes’ metabolic rates skyrocket, and their hearts grow in mass by as much as 40% within two to three days after feeding. A team of researchers led by Leslie A. Leinwand To listen to Leinwand talk about her experiments with pythons, go to cenm.ag/snake. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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disaster over the Greek debt crisis. Given the period of prolonged economic instability, Schmitz sees increased concern on the part of customers about the financial strength of their suppliers. “I am amazed at how many conversations have started with the question of financial stability,” he said. Another signal of concern for the European economy is a relative lack of inquiries for projects on the Continent, according to David Ager, principal scientist with DSM Pharma Chemicals. “A lot of our inquiries are in the U.S.,” he said, with a distinct increase in investment in early-stage projects. “Everybody is in trouble and claiming they are in good shape,” said Peter Pollak, an industry consultant who once ran Lonza’s fine chemicals business. EastWest rivalries for business persist, and Pollak contests claims by Western producers that they can provide contract manufacturing services at the same cost as Indian and Chinese firms. Although quality remains a concern in Asia, some European and U.S. companies have quality issues as well, he said. “It’s a tough world out there,” pointed out Mark C. Griffiths, CEO of Carbogen Amcis, which combines early-phase development capabilities in Switzerland with large-scale capacity in India for highly potent compounds. Interesting discussions are under way again with customers, he said, “but they are very cautious, which means you just have to be patient.”— ANN THAYER
of the University of Colorado, Boulder, took a closer look at the composition of the snakes’ blood plasma before and after feeding to understand this extreme physiology. The scientists saw a significant increase in triglycerides and fatty acids post meal that made the pythons’ blood appear “milky,” Leinwand says. Using gas chromatography, the team identified the main components responsible for signaling the snakes’ heart growth: myristic, palmitic, and palmitoleic acids. When added to cultured rat heart cells or injected into mice, this mixture caused the same enlargement elicited by the plasma of fed pythons. The researchers also administered the fatty acids to fasting pythons and observed heart growth similar to that in fed snakes. Heart growth in humans can be both good and bad, Leinwand says. For well-trained athletes, heart muscle walls and chambers grow proportionally, leading to increased metabolic efficiency. Understanding the molecular mechanisms behind healthy heart growth in pythons could help cardiac disease patients who have small heart chambers and thick heart muscle walls. These results are fascinating and newsworthy, says Marc van Bilsen, a cardiac physiologist at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands, because the researchers show that saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids—traditionally considered as “bad guys” or merely as energy-providing substrates for the heart—have important roles in cellular signaling.—LAUREN WOLF
OCTOBER 31, 2011
