Industry Awards
Call for Nominations
The ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable seeks nominations to showcase green chemistry innovations that advance sustainability in the pharma industry and among allied industrial partners. Nominations are open from October 1 to December 1, 2026.
Peter J. Dunn Awards for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Peter J. Dunn Awards were established in 2016 by the ACS GCIPR to recognize excellence in the research, development, and execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners.
Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry
The Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry award aims to recognize the research and development of computational tools that guide the design of sustainable chemical processes and the execution of green chemistry that demonstrates compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements over current technologies in the pharmaceutical industry and its allied industrial partners.
CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award
The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize outstanding efforts by CMO companies in pharmaceutical green chemistry in support of pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety, and/or efficiency improvements.
Green Discovery Chemistry Award
The Green Discovery Chemistry Award will recognize outstanding efforts in discovery chemistry that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety, and/or efficiency improvements through green chemistry and engineering.
Past Winners
- All
- CMO Excellence Award
- Data Science & Modeling Award
- Green Discovery Chemistry Award
- Peter J. Dunn Award
Improving Efficiency and Sustainability of the Olpasiran Drug Substance Process
Improving Efficiency and Sustainability of the Olpasiran Drug Substance Process 2026 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry – Large Molecule Amgen‘s Olpasiran team is recognized for developing a more efficient and environmentally responsible manufacturing process for olpasiran, a GalNAc‑conjugated siRNA therapeutic. Guided by green chemistry principles, the team […]
Sustainable Manufacturing of Repotrectinib API – BMS-986472
Sustainable Manufacturing of Repotrectinib API – BMS-986472 2026 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry – Small Molecule The Bristol Myers Squibb team is recognized for a breakthrough redesign of the manufacturing route for Repotrectinib (BMS 986472) API, delivering major sustainability and efficiency gains through green chemistry innovation. […]
High-throughput Experimentation Enabled Late-stage Functionalization as a Tool for Sustainable Chemistry
High-throughput Experimentation Enabled Late-stage Functionalization as a Tool for Sustainable Chemistry 2026 Green Discovery Chemistry Award The AstraZeneca team based in Gothenburg, led by Magnus Johansson, has been recognized for developing a powerful suite of high‑throughput experimentation (HTE)–enabled late‑stage functionalization (LSF) methods that significantly advance sustainable medicinal chemistry. LSF allows direct modification of complex molecules, […]
A Biocatalysis Platform for Large‑Scale Noncanonical Amino Acid Manufacturing
2026 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award The Aralez Bio team is honored for developing a pioneering biocatalysis platform that enables large‑scale, sustainable manufacturing of noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs), critical building blocks in next‑generation therapeutics. Traditional chemical synthesis of ncAAs is often resource‑intensive, inefficient, and environmentally burdensome. Aralez Bio’s technology overcomes long‑standing challenges in biocatalysis, […]
Saturn‑RXN: Generative Molecular Design with Steerable and Granular Synthesizability Control for Greener Chemical Synthesis
2026 Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry Award The team at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland recognized for SaturnRXN, an advanced generative molecular design framework that brings sustainability constraints directly into AI driven discovery. While traditional generative models create novel structures without regard for real world synthesis, SaturnRXN integrates explicit reaction […]
Algorithmic Process Optimization (APO) for Pharmaceutical Development.
2025 Data Science and Modeling for Green Chemistry Award The Merck and Sunthetics team, consisting of Kevin Stone, Daniela E. Blanco, Kaitlyn Brinza, Melodie Christensen, Shane Grosser, Yasser Khelalef, Abderrahman Lazizi, Andy Liaw, Spencer McMinn, Rafik Oulbsir, Victor Schultz, Ethan Tenison, César A. Urbina-Blanco, Ajit Vikram, and Yuting Xu, is awarded for their work, “Algorithmic Process Optimization (APO) for […]
Recombinant DNA technology and chimeric protein expression for sustainable production of therapeutic peptides by microbial fermentation
2025 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award Olon S.p.A is awarded on their innovative work, “Recombinant DNA technology and chimeric protein expression for sustainable production of therapeutic peptides by microbial fermentation.” Leveraging their expertise in microbial fermentation, Olon S.p.A. has developed a flexible manufacturing platform for the synthesis of peptide therapeutics. This novel technology synthesizes peptides […]
From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Developing a Sustainable and Scalable Manufacturing Process for a Complex ADC Drug-Linker
2025 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry The Merck team, consisting of Patrick Fier, Patrick Moon, Scott McCann, Tao Liang, Greg Estrada, Marc Poirier, Reed Larson, Lu Wang, Gao Shang, and Fuh-Rong Tsay, received this award for their work, “From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Developing a Sustainable and […]
A Sustainably-Designed Manufacturing Process to Adavelt™ Active from Renewable Feedstocks.
2025 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry Corteva’s winning submission “A Sustainably-Designed Manufacturing Process to Adavelt™ Active from Renewable Feedstocks.” The Corteva team demonstrated the design of an efficient manufacturing process for Adavelt™ active, with sustainability as a core focus. They adopted green chemistry principles to maximize […]
Walk-Up Automated Reaction Profiling (WARP) System: A Tool for Reaction Monitoring Designed for Discovery Chemists
2025 Green Discovery Chemistry Award The Pfizer team has been awarded the inaugural prize for their submission, “Walk-Up Automated Reaction Profiling (WARP) System: A Tool for Reaction Monitoring Designed for Discovery Chemists.” The WARP system emphasizes waste reduction and minimizing exposure to hazardous substances. The technology provides a useful and versatile profiling tool for challenging […]
Sustainable Manufacturing Process for Commercial and Developmental Stage Intermediates through Two Consecutive Flow Reactions using Micro-packed Bed Technology
2024 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award The PharmaBlock team was selected based on their innovative work on “Sustainable Manufacturing Process for Commercial and Developmental Stage Intermediates through Two Consecutive Flow Reactions using Micro-Packed Bed Technology.” Team members are Feng Zhang, Guangchao Ma, Dafen Wen, Yang Zhu, and Yuanxian Wang, all based in Nanjing, China. Their project […]
PMI Prediction and Bayesian Optimization: Two Tools with One Goal Towards the Development of ‘Greener-by-Design’ Synthesis of APIs
2024 Data Science & Modeling for Green Chemistry Award The Bristol Myers Squibb team received the innaugral Data Sciences and Modeling Award for Green Chemistry award. Richard Fox, Jun Li, Jacob Albrecht, Jason Stevens, Jose Tabora, Alina Borovika, and Benjamin Shields (BMS) partnered with Jose Garido (Princeton), Professor Ryan Adams (Princeton), and Professor Abigail Doyle […]
Development of a short and eco-friendly asymmetric manufacturing process for Spiroketone CD 7659
2024 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry The Boehringer Ingelheim team—Yongda Zhang, Eugene Chong, Jada White, Suttipol Radomkit, Yibo Xu, Jon Lorenz, and Linglin Wu—was selected for their innovative work developing a short and eco-friendly manufacturing process for Spiroketone CD 7659—a common intermediate used in multiple projects within the […]
Development of a More Sustainable 2nd Generation Route to Peptide-Maleimidocaproyl MonoMethyl Auristatin F (mcMMAF)-the Cytotoxic Payload for Blenrep®, A Novel Antibody Conjugate Drug (ACD) for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma
2024 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry GSK’s winning submission demonstrated a more sustainable peptide manufacturing route for maleimidocaproyl monomethyl auristatin F (mcMMAF)—a drug used to treat multiple myeloma, a rare cancer affecting plasma cells. GSK team members being recognized are Danny Mancheno, Ian Andrews, Qiaogong Su, […]
Sustainable Manufacturing of BMS-986278 Leveraging an ERED/KRED Biocatalytic Cascade
2023 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry Bristol-Myers Squibb was awarded for the “Sustainable Manufacturing of BMS-986278 Leveraging an ERED/KRED Biocatalytic Cascade.” The BMS team’s work demonstrated the use of an ERED/KRED biocatalytic cascade to enable the efficient installation of two stereocenters on a cyclohexyl ring as well […]
Innovative Continuous Process for the Production of 3-Oxocyclobutane-1-Carboxylic Acid
2023 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award PharmaBlock Sciences from Nanjing, China, received the 2023 CMO Award for their “Innovative Continuous Process for the Production of 3-Oxocyclobutane-1-Carboxylic Acid,” an intermediate used in several marketed drugs and drug candidates. The team developed a novel continuous process to replace the conventional batch production that included an acidic decarboxylation […]
From wood pulp to a candidate medicine: Green manufacturing technologies enable the production of investigational leukemia drug nemtabrutinib from a biorenewable commodity material
2022 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry A team from Merck in Rahway, NJ is the recipient of the 2022 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Merck team members receiving the award are Karla Camacho Soto, Mike DiMaso, Jacob […]
Leveraging innovative manufacturing technologies to deliver sustainable processes: A production-scale continuous [2 + 2] photocycloaddition to prepare a key raw material
2022 CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award The Inaugural CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award goes to Asymchem, located in Tianjin, China, for “Leveraging innovative manufacturing technologies to deliver sustainable processes: A production-scale continuous [2 + 2] photocycloaddition to prepare a key raw material.” Asymchem developed a continuous gas-liquid biphasic photochemical cycloaddition of maleic anhydride […]
Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination
2021 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry A team from Merck, Stephen Dalby, François Lévesque, Cecilia Bottecchia and Jonathan McMullen, recieved the 2021 Peter J. Dunn Award for their innovation, “Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan (MK-6482) Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination.” Belzutifan is an important new drug used in […]
Beyond Organic Solvents: Synthesis of a 5-HT4 Receptor Agonist in Water
2020 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry The recipient of the 2020 Peter J. Dunn Award is Dan Bailey of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Bailey is based at Takeda’s R&D facility in Cambridge, Mass. Bailey’s technology, titled “Beyond Organic Solvents: Synthesis of a 5-HT Receptor Agonist in Water,” uses […]