SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers

In recent years, the time pressure associated with quickly bringing candidate drugs to market has increased the number of transition metal-catalyzed reactions being transferred from lead optimization to early scale-up. The removal of post-reactions metal residues has become a major issue in the pharmaceutical industry. Purification of APIs from residual metal catalyst by traditional methods (chromatography, activated carbon, distillation, etc.) often leads to problems such as high costs, time loss, low efficiency, and reduced API yields. To overcome these limitations, SiliCycle has developed SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers, a range of products that have significantly changed how chemists can purify APIs.

Silica-based metal scavengers have been proven to be the purification method of choice over all other methods and several companies from various industries use them. With the silica matrix advantages over polymers (no swelling, more general solvent compatibility, higher mechanical and thermal stabilities, applications easily scalables and products available in different formats (SPE, flash cartridges and bulk), etc.) combined to SiliCycle’ expertise in grafting technology, SiliaMetS are the solution for metal removal without contamination of drug candidates. SiliaMetS are highly selective and offer a cost-effective alternative for metal scavenging.

For many years, SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers are used on pilot plan by GMP pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and fine chemical industries as well as contract research and manufacturing organizations. They have run their own analysis proving SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers can safely be used without compromising the purity of the material by leaching of the silica-supported product.

Thus, SiliCycle is committed to high quality standards and always wants to provide default free products. In doing so, all products are manufactured in an ISO9001:2008 compliant facility and submitted to a stringent quality control. Every lot needs to meet the quality specifications to be released and a sample from every batch is kept for subsequent analysis. All products are shipped with the following information:

• Certificate of Analysis - Purity (Leachables and extractables) - Molecular loading - Surface Coverage - Volatile Content
• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
• BSE/TSE Declaration (no animal origin)
• Relevant Technical Information

Need specific regulatory files? SiliCycle can work with you to fill your requirements and provide you custom regulatory documentations that will include specific analytical tests in line with your needs.

What are SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers?

SiliaMetS Metal Scavengers are functionalized silica gels designed to react and bind excess metal complexes. The process for using scavengers is outlined in the scheme below.

To be effective, the Metal Scavengers need the ability and inherent functionality to remove metals in their various oxidation states from the reaction mixture. For example, upon completion of a palladium metal-catalyzed reaction, the metal residue contained in the reaction can exist in both Pd (0) and Pd (II).