Awards
Congratulations to the 2023 Winners!
Read the Announcement: Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Merck, and PharmaBlock Sciences Win ACS GCIPR Green Chemistry Awards
The Pete Dunn Award goes jointly to:
- Bristol-Myers Squibb was awarded for the “Sustainable Manufacturing of BMS-986278 Leveraging an ERED/KRED Biocatalytic Cascade”.
- Merck was awarded for their “Greener Manufacturing of STING agonist (MK-1454) featuring a Kinase-cGAS enzymatic cascade”.
The CMO Excellence Award goes to:
- PharmaBlock Sciences from Nanjing, China received the CMO Award for their “Innovative Continuous Process for the Production of 3-Oxocyclobutane-1-Carboxylic Acid”.
CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award
Description
The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize outstanding efforts by CMO companies in pharmaceutical green chemistry in support of pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety and/or efficiency improvements.
The award intends to recognize greener advances in synthetic route development for starting materials, intermediates or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), including reaction conditions and chemical or manufacturing technologies.
The submission should highlight the green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale and must detail their significance (e.g., reduction in process mass intensity, improvement in RPG (iGAL), waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.).
The award will be publicly presented at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s 2023 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The speaker’s transportation, lodging and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The option to present virtually is also available this year. The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.
Chemistry enhances the quality of life and green chemistry is the path to enhanced global sustainability while delivering these benefits. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving submissions for consideration for the CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award.
Eligibility
Accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry at meaningful scale are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, greenness (RPG), robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.
The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize CMO company-level accomplishments that highlight a strategic commitment to green chemistry and engineering innovation and to greater industrial sustainability.
Geographical eligibility
CMO companies applying for this award must be headquartered in Asian countries. Nominees do not have to be members of the American Chemical Society nor the ACS GCIPR.
Application
Please use our online application portal to submit your application.
The deadline for submitting applications is 5 p.m. (EDT), Friday, December 16, 2022.
A panel of industrial pharmaceutical scientists will evaluate the applications and recommend a winner. Notifications will go out in early 2023.
Chemistry enhances lives across the globe and green chemistry is the path to enhanced sustainability. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving your submission to be considered as the best at pharmaceutical green chemistry development.
Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Description
The Peter J. Dunn Award was established in 2016 by the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR) to recognize excellence in the research, development and execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners. The inaugural award was given to Peter J. Dunn of Pfizer, and the award was subsequently named in his honor.
The award recognizes greener and more sustainable synthetic routes and their associated processes to Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or intermediates, reaction conditions, and chemical or manufacturing process technologies.
The submission should highlight the green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale and must detail their significance (e.g., reduction in process mass intensity, waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.). The innovations should be significant and ones that go beyond routine process development optimization.
The 2022 award will be presented at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. The recipient, or a member of the winning team, will be invited to share their technology in an oral presentation at this event. The recipient’s transportation, lodging and registration fees for the conference are reimbursable up to $2,500 USD (additional funds available for international travel following ACS guidelines). The recipient or winning team will also receive a plaque recognizing the achievement and certificates will be given to each team member.
Eligibility
New accomplishments relative to the design principles of green chemistry at meaningful scale are eligible for this award. Nominations must detail the significance (i.e., in yield, waste reduction, robustness, environmental impact, reduction of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, etc.) of the chemistry or engineering.
The Peter J. Dunn Award recognizes the accomplishments of individuals—whether they be individual contributions or as part of team efforts. Therefore, the ACS GCIPR strongly encourages individuals to apply. However, please note that this is not a career achievement award, rather the focus is on a specific innovative technology developed by the nominee. Nominations may also include teams of up to ten people.
The goal is to recognize both pioneering industrial scientists, as well as the best of green chemistry innovations, to inspire all pharmaceutical scientists (or allied industrial partners) to ever greater sustainability.
Note: Previous winning submissions from the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award are not eligible.
Application
Please use our online application portal to submit your application.
Applications for 2024 will open in the fall.
Examples of Successful Submissions:
A panel of industry peers will evaluate the applications.
Chemistry enhances lives across the globe and green chemistry is the path to enhanced sustainability. The ACS GCIPR looks forward to receiving your submission to be considered as the best at pharmaceutical green chemistry development.
The Inaugural CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award goes to Asymchem, located in Tianjin, China, for “Leveraging innovative manufacturing technologies to deliver sustainable processes: A production-scale continuous [2 + 2] photocycloaddition to prepare a key raw material.”
Past Dunn Award Recipients
2022
Karla Camacho Soto, Mike DiMaso, Jacob Forstater, Nadine Kuhl, Reed Larson, Chris Prier, and Ben Turnbull, Merck
“From wood pulp to a candidate medicine: Green manufacturing technologies enable the production of investigational leukemia drug nemtabrutinib from a biorenewable commodity material.”
- Media: Nexus Blog
2021
Stephen Dalby, François Lévesque, Cecilia Bottecchia and Jonathan McMullen, Merck
“Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan (MK-6482) Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination.”
- Media: ACS Webinar, C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
2020
Dan Bailey, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
“Beyond Organic Solvents: Synthesis of a 5-HT4 receptor agonist in water.”
- Media: ACS Webinar, C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
2019
B. Frank Gupton, Floyd D. Gottwald Jr. Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University
“Increasing Access to Global Health Care through Process Intensification.”
- Media: C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
2017
Bruce Lipshutz, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Sachin Handa, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Louisville.
“Development of Newly Engineered Catalysts for Sustainable Surfactant Chemistry in Water.”
- Media: ACS Webinar, C&EN Article, Nexus Blog
2016
Peter J. Dunn, Global Head of Green Chemistry, Pfizer
- Media: Nexus Blog</li