Biocatalysis as a tool for optimizing pharmaceutical synthesis of drugs (review)

Relevance. Competitiveness and recognition of Russian drugs in the pharmaceutical market is possible only if the domestic product and its technology are inscribed in the paradigm of the development of advanced global pharmaceutical production, the priority drivers of which are environmental friendliness and economic efficiency. The introduction of "green technologies", and in particular the principles of "green chemistry", is a clear manifestation of the current trend and demand for the future in the development and production of medicines. The most interesting from a theoretical point of view and promising in practical terms is the optimization of the processes of synthesis of pharmaceutical substances through the introduction of enzyme synthesis. The goal is to show the prospects for the use of biocatalysis in the synthesis of drugs. Material and methods. The materials were scientific publications and patents devoted to modern problems and ways to solve them in the field of "green chemistry", "biocatalysis" and "synthesis of pharmaceutical substances". When writing the review, the following methods were used: systematization, comparison, analysis and generalization. Results. The review gives a brief historical description of the "waves of biocatalysis", considers the most striking examples of the modern application of enzyme catalysis in the world practice of pharmaceutical synthesis, generalizes the general prospects for the use of biocatalysis in the synthesis of drugs. The article shows that chemoenzymatic synthesis is economical, increases the purity of the target product, especially its "stereopurity", allows the synthesis of new drugs, which were previously difficult or even impossible to obtain according to classical schemes. It is concluded that, despite sufficient experimental material in related scientific fields, in our country there is practically no development of the direction on the use of enzyme synthesis in the development and production of medicines.