The Hindu Business Line : DuPont to bring fluorine intermediates to India

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Hyderabad Feb. 9 DuPont, the global science-based products and services company, has plans to introduce fluorine-based intermediates with applications in pharmaceutical and agrochemicals sectors in India shortly, according to Ms Kelly Kolliopoulos, its Global Business Leader for the sector.

The company has initiated discussions with Indian pharma and agro-chemical majors to launch the products. "Indian companies have been quite receptive to our discussions," she told Business Line here on Friday.

Fluoro products, which constitute $2 billion of DuPont's over $30 billion turnover, find a range of applications in refrigeration, pharma, cookware, agriculture, electronics, semiconductor, consumer products and life sciences.

New reagent

DuPont, a pioneer in fluorine chemistry, is developing new reagent that will help fluorine to be put into drug compounds. In the next few years, it should be possible to have 40 per cent of molecules incorporated with fluorine compared to about 20-25 per cent now, Ms Kolliopoulos explained.

What the fluorine integration is expected to achieve is healthier crops more effective medicines and new, high-performance polymers. DuPont has through its Teflon and Polytetrafluoroethylene — a fluoro polymer — ushered in a range of applications, from cookware to apparel to vascular grafts in solar panels, she said.

In the drug sector, fluoropharmaceutical intermediates are playing an important role in anaesthetics and diabetes-related drugs. In agriculture, 28 per cent of all crop protection active ingredients contain fluorine. In the semiconductor industry, chips rely on perfluorocarbon gases (PFC) and about 500 tonnes per year of PFC consumption has been reported already.

Other works

DuPont is actively engaged in developing surface protection technology. It is close to extending the application of Teflon coating to even leather products. Further, work is on to ensure that the coatings are insect repellent and protected against soil impact, Ms Kolliopoulos said.

DuPont and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology organised a day-long seminar on fluorine compounds on Friday. Dr A.V. Rama Rao, Chairman of AVRA Labs, detailed some of the developments and applications in the area, while Dr Rene Gree, Director of Research, University of Rennes, France, presented some of the recent work done in relation to potential applications.