This review focuses on the flow-oriented design (FOD) in the multi-step continuous-flow synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Continuous‐flow multistep synthesis is combined with quasi‐continuous final‐product purification to produce pure products from crude reaction mixtures. In the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of 2,4‐difluoronitrobenzene with morpholine followed by a heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation, the desired monosubstituted product can be continuously separated from the co‐ and by‐products in a purity of over 99 % by coupling a flow reactor sequence to a multiple dual‐mode (MDM) centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) device. This purification technique has many advantages over HPLC, such as higher resolution and no need for column replacement or silica recycling, and it does not suffer from irreversible adsorption.

The first integrated continuous-flow synthesis of the drug substance flibanserin was developed, using an uninterrupted four-step sequence,viaan unprecedented route.