Pharmaceutical companies have traditionally been very risk-averse and have adopted safe and well-established processes. This probably has its roots in the fact that the regulatory agencies in general have been very conservative and less approving of novel methodologies being used in the process unless absolutely necessary.
However, this is now changing. With the growing complexity of drug molecules and the need to involve newer and harsher reaction conditions that were once thought of as unfriendly in process chemistry, continuous flow chemistry and processing offer a proven alternative pathway.
