Intermediates are a very important type of fine chemical products, in essence, they are a kind of "semi-finished products", mainly used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, coatings, dyes and fragrances. In the pharmaceutical field, intermediates are used to produce APIs. So what is this sub-sector of pharmaceutical intermediates?

The so-called pharmaceutical intermediates are actually some chemical raw materials or chemical products used in the process of drug synthesis. This kind of chemical products, without the production license of drugs, can be produced in ordinary chemical plants, and when they reach some levels, they can be used in the synthesis of drugs.

The main varieties of pharmaceutical intermediates

Nucleoside intermediates.

The main anti-AIDS drug synthesized by this kind of intermediates is zidovudine, which is produced by American Glaxo. Wellcome company and Bristol-Myers Squibb two companies production.

Cardiovascular intermediates.

Such as synthetic sartans because of its more complete antihypertensive effect, less side effects, long efficacy (can be stable control of blood pressure for 24 hours) and can be used in combination with other sartans and other advantages, has become a widely used hypertension treatment drugs. According to the data, in 2015, the global demand for major sartan drug APIs (coxsartan potassium, olmesartan ester, valsartan, irbesartan, telmisartan, candesartan ester) reached 3,300 tons. Combined sales of $21,063 million.

Fluorine-containing intermediates.

This type of intermediates synthesized fluorine-containing drugs because of its excellent efficacy in recent years to gain rapid development, only 2% of the market in 1970 fluorine-containing drugs, to 2013, it increased to 25%. Representative products such as fluoroquinolone anti-infective drugs, antidepressant fluoxetine, and antifungal drug fluconazole account for a relatively high proportion of clinical use, with fluoroquinolone anti-infective drugs accounting for about 15% of the global market share of anti-infective drugs. In addition, trifluoroethanol is an important intermediate for the synthesis of anesthetics, while trifluoromethylaniline is an important intermediate for the synthesis of antimalarial drugs, anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, anti-prostate drugs and antidepressants, and the market prospect is also very promising.

Heterocyclic intermediates.

Represented by pyridine and piperazine, they are mainly used in the synthesis of anti-ulcer drugs, bulk gastric drugs, anti-inflammatory and anti-infective drugs, high-efficiency antihypertensive drugs and new anti-breast cancer drug Letrozole.

Pharmaceutical intermediates are an important link in the industry chain of pharmaceutical industry.

Upstream are basic chemical raw materials, mostly petrochemical products, such as acetylene, ethylene, propylene, butylene and butadiene, toluene and xylene. Pharmaceutical intermediates are subdivided into primary intermediates and advanced intermediates. The primary intermediates suppliers can only provide simple intermediates production, in the front of the industry chain, the most competitive pressure and price pressure, so the price fluctuations of basic chemical raw materials to bring a greater impact. Advanced intermediates suppliers not only have strong bargaining power over primary suppliers, but more importantly, because they are responsible for the production of advanced intermediates with high technical content, and maintain closer contact with multinational companies, so raw material price fluctuations have less impact on them. Midstream belongs to pharmaceutical fine chemical industry. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical intermediates synthesize intermediates or API crude products and sell the products to pharmaceutical companies in the form of chemical products, which are refined and then sold as drugs.