Last Year Figures


If you have lived through the 80s you will probably remember this word. Another year is behind us and it is time to take stock. We present our figures about projects and products in 2010.


Well, these are the final figures for 2010. We have included the figures of 2009 so you can compare:

2009 2010
Projects started 119 123
Projects completed 123 108
Projects not completed succesfully 6 8.5
Projects completed with delay 2 6.5
Success Rate 95.1% 92.1%
Longest route 15 steps 14 steps
Products delivered 447 728
In quantity below 100 mg 175 618
In quantity below 100 mg and 1 g 91 56
In quantity between 1 and 10 g 110 24
In quantity between 10 and 100 g 59 25
In quantity over 100 g 12 5


Figures for started and completed projects are similar to the ones in 2009. We are proud to say that our success rate has raised from 92% to 95%, with only six projects failing over a total of 123. It may look a small improvement, but as everybody know, the higher you are, the more difficult to go even higher. Only two projects were completed out of the deadline, and more important, all projects were the deadline was driven by biology (i.e., preclinical trials, in vitro assays and so on) were completed succesfully before the deadline, the best proof of our commitment to our clients.


Our longest route in 2010 was 15 steps. Though this is longest linear route and therefore the winner, we had in fact several longer projects, but convergent synthesis. Our winner was also special by other reasons: it involved sugar chemistry from the beginning to the end and the preparation of a highly functionalized molecule with biologic activity. Once again, our commitment was complete: we deliver this product in three months or we invoice nothing. Target accomplished!


I must admit that figures related with products came as a surprise to me. Only 447 products against 728 last year? What is happening here? Well, the reason is in 2010 several drug discovery projects have advanced from the lead finding and lead optimization stages to the sometimes more challenging lead candidate stage: higher quantities of product are required, and more time is invested in scale up, optimization and preparation of bigger batches than in the synthesis of many different compounds.


In fact, the number of products in the range of 1-10 grams has increased fourfold and the products in the range of 10-100 grams have doubled. We are delivering succesfully more and more products for preclinical regulatory assays with all parties involved satisfied with our work. The number of products in the range of more than 100 g has also doubled. Again, we are delivering more products for the critical regulatory aspects and contributing to the success of our clients.