Kevin R. Wirtz, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

As a Senior Scientist at Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals, Kevin applies his expertise in research and development to a wide variety of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates for client projects.  Kevin designs and conducts experiments for process development and optimization, and guides the scale up of chemical processes for API production.

As a Project Study Director, Kevin directs and coordinates the activities of analysts and chemists on a variety research and development projects.  He also provides technical expertise to our quality control and quality assurance teams to ensure our clients needs are met successfully.

Kevin experience includes the synthesis of prostaglandins, retinoids, indolequinolines, sesquiterpenediones, D2 vitamins, aryltetraazaacenaphthylenes, steroids, opiates, barbituates, alkaloids, heterocycles, and amino acids.

Past Experience

• Natural polymer purification, derivatization and product development.

• Process development and scale up of chemical intermediates, colorforming dyes, and specialty chemicals.
• Plant process optimization, modification, support, and troubleshooting.

Education

• Organometallic and synthetic organic chemistry.
• Regiospecific synthesis of quinones from cyclobutenediones using non-metal catalyzed thermal cyclization processes. 
• Synthetic methodologies for the synthesis of cyclobutenediones and cyclobutenedione monoketals from squaric acid esters. 
• Synthesis of substituted alkynes and quinones from organocobalt complexes.

• 3 years undergraduate research including the synthesis of sesquiterpenes, intermediate molecules, and dodecahedrane precursors.

 Practical and high yielding routes to substituted cyclobutenediones are described.  3,4-Bis(1-methylethoxy)cyclobut-3-ene-1,2-dione (diisopropyl squarate), a stable, crystalline derivative of squaric acid, was easily prepared by refluxing squaric acid in 2-propanol/benzene with azeotropic removal of H2O.  Reaction with organolithium reagents proceeded in very high yield to give stable, isolable 1,2-adducts. 

Treatment in a two-phase system (CH2CL2/12 N HCL at room temperature) led to excellent yields of 3-(1-methylethoxy)-4-substituted-cyclobut-3-ene-1,2-diones.  Alternatively, the free alcohol of the intermediate 1,2-adducts was protected as the tert-butyldimethylsilyl ether, and a 1,2-addition of a second and different organolithium reagent was achieved.  Hydrolysis of these compounds led to very good yields of differentially disubstituted  cyclobutenediones.