US chiral chemicals demand set to grow
15 Jan 2000
Demand for chiral chemicals in the US is set to increase by almost ten per cent each year up to 2003, according to a report from the Freedonia Group. The US market for these substances will then be worth $9.4billion, the report predicts.
The main driver for this growth is the need for safer and more effective medicines, the researchers say. Many pharmaceutical active ingredients are chiral, and growth in fields where these molecules are important - such as antidepressants, antihistamines, HIV drugs, anti-cancer, anti-diabetes and neurological agents, and anti-infectives - will see the proportion of drugs based on chiral molecules jump from 36 per cent in 1998 to 40 per cent by 2003.
Applications outside the drugs industry are more limited, with products for biotechnology research, aroma chemicals for fragrances and amino acids for polymers showing the fastest increases in demand.
