Green Chemistry in the Fine Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Industries

Biocatalysis is the main green chemistry technology adopted by the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries to manufacture chemicals with higher yield. Heterogeneously catalyzed processes using supported metal or molecular catalysts are still an exception. Reviewing the actual development of green chemistry in these important segments of the chemical enterprise, we investigate the reasons behind such a delay in innovation. Finally, we consider whether green metrics developed by chemists is actually purposeful to management, and find that this concept needs to be streamlined to include simple financial metrics quantifying the impact of prevention on the company's bottom line.