The Application of Amino Acids

Amino acids for synthesis already hold a significant place in the manufacture of peptide hormones, some “chemical” drugs, and certain food sweeteners. Today, however, new kinds of applications have emerged. Synthesis applications of amino acids are cornerstones of the emergent fields of chiral technology, combinatorial chemistry and drug discovery, as well as new directions in immunology, the study of molecular receptors and the investigation of enzyme mechanisms.

At the first, pharmaceuticals are the most significant category of synthesis applications for amino acids. The sales of pharmaceuticals were about $211.3 million in 1998 and are forecast to reach $303.8 million in 2003, returning an AAGR of 7.5%. An important segment of pharmaceutical applications concerns the synthesis of peptides, which have medical uses as hormones and analogs and as potential uses as vaccine antigens. However, in many cases markets are mature and hence the major growth in pharmaceutical applications of amino acids is expected in the synthesis of non- peptide compounds, which includes semisynthetic antibiotics, ACE inhibitors and certain HIV protease inhibitors.

The second most significant sector of synthesis applications is the making of dipeptide food sweeteners. The sales value of amino acids for this category of applications is $200 million in 1998 and is estimated to reach $322.2 million in 2003, an AAGR of 10%. Aspartame, which calls for L- aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine, dominates this sector, but market demand for this sweetener has about peaked. Growth in the category will be driven by the new dipeptide sweetener alitame, which calls for L-aspartic acid and D-alanine.

The third sector of synthesis applications includes bioresearch peptides and a category of other applications. Bioresearch peptides include biologically active peptide hormones and analogs, enzyme substrates, enzyme inhibitors, and antigens for the generation of monoclonal antibodies. The predominant segment of our “Other” category relates to chiral technology, which makes use of structurally altered derivatives of amino acids, such as amino alcohols. Also included in this category are amino acid polymers (e.g., glycylglycine) and amino acid-containing agrochemicals. All together, this sector provided amino acid sales of $20 million in 1998. The sales are projected to be $23.8 million in 2003, for an average annual growth rate of 3.5% in this period.

Overall, natural amino acids currently dominate synthesis applications. But many of their outlets have reached maturity and, as a consequence, natural amino acids will exhibit only modest growth during the next several years. Unnatural amino acids, in contrast, have a lesser share of sales but will be the ones exhibiting the more significant growth.

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