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R&D SUPPORT

Research and development projects (R & D) vary widely. Envision Chemistry scientists have been involved in basic research in pharmaceuticals, pesticides, industrial speciality chemicals, petroleum products and natural products. We have employment and collaborative experience with many companies. All this has shown us that the details of individual R & D programmes depend upon company culture, the quality and experience of the scientists, and on the financial targets. So we cannot be prescriptive here!

It is our belief that acceptability, on grounds of health and environmental impacts, should be part of an R & D programme from the earliest realistic and suitable stage. This might be from the start (e.g. in a substitution project) or as soon as leads are being evaluated (e.g. in pharmaceuticals). In some projects acceptability will be one of the performance criteria.

Using modern techniques of statistics and property models, it is possible to predict effects, in terms of both the desired ‘performance’ effects/properties and undesirable side effects. There are limits: for example, prediction of mammalian toxicity of chemicals from their structure alone is not always practical.

As a project develops, it can be essential to validate predictions with measurements. In respect of Health, Safety & Environment properties (H, S & E), screening techniques can be employed in many cases. Ideally, Envision hopes to work alongside clients in a team. We believe that effective predictive methods should have some discernible link with expert knowledge and experience, and good modelling should not feel like a 'black box' where no-one can understand what it is doing!

Photography courtesy of Emanuel Lobeck