Dramatic Reduction in Anticancer Drug Costs: “Direct Deamination” Praised by Nature Opens New Path for Pharma Industry and Well-being
On October 28, 2025, the top international academic journal Nature published a landmark research achievement from the team led by Zhang Xiaheng at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study – “N-nitroamine-mediated direct deamination functionalization”. The technological value and social significance behind this achievement have far-reaching impacts on the pharmaceutical industry, scientific research field and people’s well-being in China and even the world.
China’s Solution to a Century-Old Chemical Challenge
Aromatic amines are indispensable “basic building blocks” in anticancer drugs, antidepressants, pesticides and even new materials. For over a century, if chemists wanted to modify this “building block”, they had to adopt a dangerous and inefficient traditional path: first converting it into a “diazonium salt” intermediate. This intermediate not only poses safety hazards during preparation, but also significantly increases production time and costs, becoming a key bottleneck restricting the large-scale and low-cost production of related drugs and materials.
The “direct deamination” strategy pioneered by Zhang Xiaheng’s team has completely subverted this traditional model. The technology enables efficient, safe and direct conversion of aromatic amine compounds without going through the high-risk and low-efficiency intermediate step of “diazonium salt”. From the chemical mechanism perspective, it completes functionalization modification under mild reaction conditions through an innovative N-nitroamine-mediated pathway. It not only ensures the selectivity and yield of the reaction, but also avoids the safety hazards of traditional processes at the source, opening up a new technical window for the modification of aromatic amine molecules.
Dual Revolution in Anticancer Drug Cost Reduction and Green Production
The breakthrough of this technology has first triggered a cost revolution in the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, Zhang Xiaheng’s team has collaborated with multiple pharmaceutical companies to apply the “direct deamination” technology to the synthesis of anticancer drug intermediates. It is estimated that the new technology is expected to reduce the production cost of certain drug intermediates by 40% to 50%. The significance of this reduction for the pharmaceutical industry is self-evident – it can not only promote the downward trend of the terminal price of anticancer drugs, improve patients’ access to high-priced anticancer drugs, but also reshape the competitive landscape in the pharmaceutical industry chain.
At the same time, the green attribute of the technology also has great industrial value. The traditional “diazonium salt” pathway is often accompanied by the generation of a large amount of pollutants, while the “direct deamination” strategy has achieved ton-scale green production, reducing pollutant emissions from the source of the process, which is in line with the current global trend of the pharmaceutical industry towards “green pharmaceutical manufacturing”. This means that the technology can not only reduce costs, but also help pharmaceutical companies meet increasingly strict environmental regulations, achieving a win-win situation of economic benefits and environmental benefits.
Safeguarding the Hope of Patients and the Social Mission of Science
The reduction in the cost of anticancer drugs is related to the life hope of countless patients. High-priced anticancer drugs were once an unbearable burden for many families, and the cost reduction brought by this technology will effectively alleviate the economic pressure of patients’medication, allowing more people to receive timely and effective treatment. It took Zhang Xiaheng’s team three years and thousands of experiments to achieve this breakthrough, which shows that scientific research and innovation require long-term perseverance and unremitting efforts. Therefore, we should adhere to exploration and innovation, share and transform scientific achievements, address the challenges in technology promotion, shoulder the social mission of scientific research, and uphold sustainable development.
Dramatic Reduction in Anticancer Drug Costs: “Direct Deamination” Praised by Nature Opens New Path for Pharma Industry and Well-being
On October 28, 2025, the top international academic journal Nature published a landmark research achievement from the team led by Zhang Xiaheng at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study – “N-nitroamine-mediated direct deamination functionalization”. The technological value and social significance behind this achievement have far-reaching impacts on the pharmaceutical industry, scientific research field and people’s well-being in China and even the world.
China’s Solution to a Century-Old Chemical Challenge
Aromatic amines are indispensable “basic building blocks” in anticancer drugs, antidepressants, pesticides and even new materials. For over a century, if chemists wanted to modify this “building block”, they had to adopt a dangerous and inefficient traditional path: first converting it into a “diazonium salt” intermediate. This intermediate not only poses safety hazards during preparation, but also significantly increases production time and costs, becoming a key bottleneck restricting the large-scale and low-cost production of related drugs and materials.
The “direct deamination” strategy pioneered by Zhang Xiaheng’s team has completely subverted this traditional model. The technology enables efficient, safe and direct conversion of aromatic amine compounds without going through the high-risk and low-efficiency intermediate step of “diazonium salt”. From the chemical mechanism perspective, it completes functionalization modification under mild reaction conditions through an innovative N-nitroamine-mediated pathway. It not only ensures the selectivity and yield of the reaction, but also avoids the safety hazards of traditional processes at the source, opening up a new technical window for the modification of aromatic amine molecules.
Dual Revolution in Anticancer Drug Cost Reduction and Green Production
The breakthrough of this technology has first triggered a cost revolution in the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, Zhang Xiaheng’s team has collaborated with multiple pharmaceutical companies to apply the “direct deamination” technology to the synthesis of anticancer drug intermediates. It is estimated that the new technology is expected to reduce the production cost of certain drug intermediates by 40% to 50%. The significance of this reduction for the pharmaceutical industry is self-evident – it can not only promote the downward trend of the terminal price of anticancer drugs, improve patients’ access to high-priced anticancer drugs, but also reshape the competitive landscape in the pharmaceutical industry chain.
At the same time, the green attribute of the technology also has great industrial value. The traditional “diazonium salt” pathway is often accompanied by the generation of a large amount of pollutants, while the “direct deamination” strategy has achieved ton-scale green production, reducing pollutant emissions from the source of the process, which is in line with the current global trend of the pharmaceutical industry towards “green pharmaceutical manufacturing”. This means that the technology can not only reduce costs, but also help pharmaceutical companies meet increasingly strict environmental regulations, achieving a win-win situation of economic benefits and environmental benefits.
Safeguarding the Hope of Patients and the Social Mission of Science
The reduction in the cost of anticancer drugs is related to the life hope of countless patients. High-priced anticancer drugs were once an unbearable burden for many families, and the cost reduction brought by this technology will effectively alleviate the economic pressure of patients’medication, allowing more people to receive timely and effective treatment. It took Zhang Xiaheng’s team three years and thousands of experiments to achieve this breakthrough, which shows that scientific research and innovation require long-term perseverance and unremitting efforts. Therefore, we should adhere to exploration and innovation, share and transform scientific achievements, address the challenges in technology promotion, shoulder the social mission of scientific research, and uphold sustainable development.