The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® Pharmaceutical Roundtable has assembled an updated list of key research areas to highlight transformations and reaction media where more sustainable technologies would be most impactful.

ContentsI. Introduction 1195 1. Overview 1195 2. Development of Sugar-Based Synthetic Methods 1197 3. Review of Enzymatic Manipulations Leading to Carbohydrates 1198 4. Future Prospects of the Chemistry of Monoand Oligosaccharides 1199

A wild-type Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase was engineered to overcome numerous liabilities in order to mediate a commercial oxidation of pyrmetazole to esomeprazole, using air as the terminal oxidant in an almost exclusively aqueous reaction matrix. The developed enzyme and process compares favorably to the incumbent Kagan inspired chemocatalytic oxidation, as esomeprazole was isolated in 87% yield, in >99% purity, with an enantiomeric excess of >99%.

This review describes examples of the broadening industrial relevance of engineered secondary metabolism enzymes, natural products and analogs being made with these enzymes, and technology improvements that have enabled their development since 1999.