The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 severely disrupted global supply chains, leading to economic challenges that persist today. The urgent need for effective COVID-19 therapies prompted the exploration of new technologies to accelerate drug development and minimize failure risks. The Cernak research group at the University of Michigan employed SYNTHIA™ Retrosynthesis Software to devise alternative synthetic routes for the antiviral drug umifenovir and eleven other antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs. This approach, detailed in their recent Nature Communications paper, highlights the use of retrosynthetic software to enhance supply chain resilience by identifying novel, cost-effective synthetic pathways.

SYNTHIA™, developed by Merck, plays a pivotal role in this process by utilizing advanced algorithms to predict viable synthetic routes, prioritizing novel starting materials, and optimizing reaction sequences. This capability is crucial in times of global disruption, ensuring the availability of critical pharmaceuticals. The study successfully validated several routes experimentally, demonstrating SYNTHIA™'s effectiveness in reinforcing supply chains and supporting the production of essential medicines.

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Lin, Y., Zhang, Z., Mahjour, B. et al. Reinforcing the supply chain of umifenovir and other antiviral drugs with retrosynthetic software. Nat Commun 12, 7327 (2021). doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27547-3