Merck’s €10k synthesis competition will lab test routes
By 
Katrina Krämer2018-08-06T15:15:00
Pharma company offers €10,000 in prize money for retrosynthesis challenge that will bench test finalists’ proposals
A cash prize of €10,000 (£8,900) is up for grabs in a compound synthesis competition run by Merck KGaA that will see finalists’ routes tested at the bench.
The pharma company will select 12 teams or individuals from all the entries and give them 96 hours to come up with a synthesis route for the same small molecule. How each proposal works in practice will then be tested by a contract research organisation. Syntheses will be ranked by number of steps, product yields and purities.