Since their inception in the late 1970s, fine chemicals have become an important part of the chemical industry. The total production value of $85 billion is split about 60 / 40 among in-house production by the main consumers, the life science industry, on the one hand, and the fine chemicals industry on the other hand. The latter pursues both a “supply push” strategy, whereby standard products are developed in-house and offered ubiquitously, and a “demand pull” strategy, whereby products or services determined by the customer are provided exclusively on a “one customer / one supplier” basis. The products are mainly used as building blocks for proprietary products. The hardware of the top tier fine chemical companies has become almost identical. The design, lay-out and equipment of the plants and laboratories has become practically the same all over the world. Most chemical reactions performed go back to the days of the dyestuff industry. Numerous regulations determine the way labs and plants have to be operated, thereby contributing to the uniformity.
from:Acridine Raw Material