[beheada]

As a now utterly broke graduate student, I've read of several chemists (perhaps mythic) who supplemented their income by doing small-scale synthesis of somewhat difficult / expensive compounds and selling them to pharmaceutical companies.

One that I just read about was ibotenic acid. Supposedly a chemist named Jonathan Ott supplemented his income by synthesizing it and selling it to pharmaceutical companies so he could do whatever it was he was doing.

Is there any credence to pharmacuetical companies buying chemicals from individuals for their research if the price is right? Sigma-Aldrich sells ibotenic acid for 25mg ~ $300 which would put it at roughly $5000/g if you scaled up and discounted.

But aside from ibotenic acid, are there other specialty chemicals that pharmaceutical companies (or even other individuals, specialty rocket propellants, insecticides, whatever) will pay to have manufactured. I know that there are companies like Organix that have been around since the 1980's that do target synthesis contracts, but is it even remotely feasible for an individual to do this?

Just kind of wondering what the consensus here is...
PhD = pretty hopeful & destitute

BTW I wasn't sure which section to post this in!?

[Dan]

I would suggest getting bar work or private tuition etc., doing custom synthesis on the side is a bad idea.

1. An established chemical supplier is very unlikely to buy from an individual. The are all sorts of quality control issues etc. I don't know anything about Ott, but he presumably did this a few decades ago when many of the bureaucratic considerations and regulations we have today may not have been very rigorous?

2. How will you fund it? You can't just spend your supervisor's grant money on overheads for under the bench custom synthesis - you'd get fired. I think the only reason it may look lucrative is that you have not factored in the cost of reagents, consumables, analysis, lab rental etc.

3. Do you really have the time? If you're out of money you'd be better off doing something that makes money faster and more reliably that allows you to keep up with your studies. For an individual I really doubt that you will make a reliable good hourly rate doing this.

[Arkcon]

Back in my college days, my organic prof was getting pestered often for custom organic synthesis.  What was often needed was a particular molecule radio-labeled at a specific spot -- and according to him, some very difficult to make positions.  Add to that the purity needed, the radio-liability of the molecule, and the disposal of the waste, the whole thing was a complete non-starter for him at my local college laboratory.

[Fluorine]

I don't know anything about Ott, but he presumably did this a few decades ago when many of the bureaucratic considerations and regulations we have today may not have been very rigorous?

I agree with Dan's point and to clarify some things;

Jonathan Ott did introduce ibotenic acid and muscimol to the scientific research market back in 1976 however I don't know the prices. It is more likely he isolated the alkaloids from Amanita sp. not synthesized them, here's why. A. muscaria naturally grows in Northwest wilderness; identifying it is very easy and acquiring it is free. Furthermore in his magnum opus, Pharmacotheon, he mentions obtaining 93mg of crystalline ibotenic acid which he and chemist Scott Chilton "had isolated from the mushroom Amanita pantherina in [Chilton's] Seattle laboratory". If you're interested, Dr. Chilton published the bioassy in the 1975 issue of McIlvainea (specifically; Chilton, W.S. I975. "The course of an intentional poisoning" Mcllvainea 2: 17-I8.) which I assume would contain their extraction method. Unfortunately I cannot find a freely available copy but in lieu you could try these;

Isolation: Takemoto, Yakugaku Zasshi 84: 1186, 1964 (Amanita strobiliformis); Eugster, Tetrahedron Letters 1813, 1965 (Amanita muscaria)
Synthesis: Gagneux, Tet. Lett. 2081,1965; Nakamura, Cherm. Pharm. Bull Jpn. 19: 46,1971; Kishida, ibid. 14: 92, 1966; Sirakawa, ibid. 14: 89, 1966

Lastly ibotenic acid's stability should also be considered. Independent isolations by Ott/Chilton and Eugster on "American A. pantherina" and "Swiss A. muscaria", respectively, both also yielded ibotenic acid's isomer, muscazone. The isolation procedure is suspected to have caused this. There are also claims of it decarboxylating by heat (or even drying of fungi) to muscimol, so special precautions and/or isolation steps might been needed to ensure stability of desired product.

Hope this helps.

[beheada]

Thanks for the responses.
Though I used Jonathan Ott as an example, he was the only available person I have even heard of doing this.
What I was more interested in was the feasibility of whether or not one could do custom synthesis (since all of my time is in the lab)?
The purity wouldn't be an issue because I have access to analytical instrumentation (we mainly use proton NMR). I would undoubtably pay for the reagents myself and my professor allows me basically free reign (24h access) as far as lab time goes.
But, as far as my suspicions go, I find it highly unlikely that a company will buy from an individual just from a liability standpoint unless my professor was involved in securing the contract (which is highly unlikely, though he has stated he would allow me to pursue any side project as long as it doesn't interfere with our work).

Thanks for your replies. I may look into that publication you mentioned.

[beheada]

On a side note, my girlfriend suggested I stop eating sushi and then maybe I could afford movie tickets.

:-0

The audacity...