Reinventing fine chemicals synthesis: large-scale production of sparteine from lupin beans
Spartax Chemicals, a newly founded Portuguese company, has developed an innovative process for the large scale production of Sparteine, using as raw material a compound extracted from lupin processing wastewater. Enantiomerically pure sparteine is an exceptionally good enantioselective ligand for asymmetric synthesis that has found application not only in the field of synthetic organic chemistry but also in the development of synthetic routes for the preparation of commercial drugs and drug candidates, with the most prominent example being the anticonvulsant drug (S)-Pregabalin.
The SpartWISE process was developed to address the market need for reliable sources of both enantiomers of Sparteine. It is a well-documented fact that there is a cyclic stock rupture of enantiomerically pure Sparteine at the main chemical vendors. As a consequence, many researchers, both from academia and industry, have been forced to look inter alia for suppliers in the Asian market, which often do not comply with the standards of quality necessary for R&D purposes, or do not deliver the requested product in sufficient amount in due time. 
Contrary to the state of the art approach, which relies on the cumbersome extraction and purification of small amounts of (-)-Sparteine available from a leguminous shrub, the SpartWISE technology offers a cost-effective process that can make this compound available on kilogram-scale with drastic reduction of production costs and with continuous production. Moreover, it also generates the even scarcer enantiomer (+)-Sparteine. 
Our goal for the Phase 1 is to assess the feasibility and market potential for the large scale production and commercialisation of Sparteine. For that purpose, we will (a) assess all the costs of the scaling-up, (b) investigate the prospective customers for our products and (c) develop a detailed business plan for commercialisation.