Continuous manufacturing - the Green Chemistry promise?

Continuous manufacturing and Green Chemistry, are two promising approaches to synthesis with underutilized potential that are gaining traction by the wider pharmaceutical community. We review Green Chemistry advances resulting when transitioning to continuous manufacturing with focus on Green Chemistry elements inherent in flow chemistry and related separation processes. Case studies of continuous manufacturing represented by the F-3 (Flexible, Fast, and Future) project, cGPM manufacturing at Eli Lilly, and the MIT pharmaceuticals on demand projects provide examples of Green Chemistry advances realised. Throughout the review, Green Chemistry advances are identified in terms of the pertinent principles of Green Chemistry. A count of the occurrences of the different principles of Green Chemistry reveals that the principle of prevention greatly overshadows all other principles.