Industrial chemicals are used in researching and developing active drug substances and manufacturing bulk substances and finished pharmaceutical products. Organic and inorganic chemicals are raw materials, serving as reactants, reagents, catalysts and solvents.
Cumene and phenol, for example, both produced from benzene, are used as a starting material to make aspirin and penicillin, one of the first and still one of the antibiotic agents. Plastics and resins are found in orthopedic devices.
An invaluable material, plastics are low cost solutions for disposable syringes, containers for storing blood and vaccines and other devices which are used only once to avoid the risk of contamination.