- Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients -> Bulk Drugs for the Pharmaceutical Industry
Tolbiac is a pharmochemical company, established in Argentina in 1972. From the very beginnings, the goal has been the production of high quality active pharmaceutical ingredients at competitive prices, using local raw materials or, when they are not available, substances which can be easily obtained as commodities in the international market. The first product was Silymarin (Silybum marianum flavonoids), a natural extract. It is obtained from the milk thistle [Silybum marianum L. (Gaertn.)], using an extraction and purification technology fully developed in our own R&D laboratories. At that time (1975) Tolbiac was one of the only three companies in the world manufacturing it. Today Tolbiac have 24 years of experience with Silymarin; it is still one of our main products. Some time later we started to develop synthetic drug manufacturing procedures. Today we produce thyroid hormones, such as Levothyroxine, Liothyronine, and Tiratricol, as well as other synthetic active pharmaceutical ingredients, by multi-stage chemical synthesis. Research & Development Department of Tolbiac is active in applied research in the fields of natural products and fine chemistry. Production techniques are developed and tried out in this department. Also, in collaboration with our Quality Control Department, new analytical procedures for identification, purity and general quality control are developed. Topics on which we have done R&D work include, among others, the following: 1. Natural products: isolation and identification of plant components. Development of an efficient Silymarin extraction and purification method. 2. Thyroid hormones and its derivatives: study of the chemical reactions involved in its production. Development of a very efficient procedure for high quality Tiratricol synthesis. 3. Steroid chemistry: total synthesis of steroids with a non-natural carbon skeleton. 4. Chiral chemistry: development of asymmetric synthetic methods. 5. Analytical methods: study and comparison of different assay methods for Silymarin. Modification of the DAB assay for Cardui mariae fructus, with significant improvements in accuracy and simplicity.
