Contract Research and Contract Development and Manufacturing (CRO & CDMO) Services
At Akown, we are building a next-generation CDMO dedicated to chemical process development and contract manufacturing. Our mission is to help partners bring their chemistry from concept to commercial reality through advanced process innovation, intensification, and scale-up expertise.
We specialize in batch chemistry, vapor-phase chemistry, flow chemistry, photochemistry, electrochemistry, and other transformative domains, enabling us to deliver efficient, economical, and sustainable manufacturing solutions tailored to client needs.
Our multidisciplinary team—comprising chemists from academia and industry, chemical engineers, equipment designers, and instrumentation experts—works seamlessly to design robust chemistry recipes and make them operable at manufacturing scale.
As a trusted CDMO partner, we combine deep chemistry know-how with engineering precision to accelerate product development, optimize processes, and provide flexible, reliable manufacturing capacity.
Working Models Offered
Contract Research (CRO)
Contract development and manufacturing (CDMO)
Chemistry Consultancy
FTE
Services
Literature study
Route scouting
Chemical process development and optimization
QbD
Analytical development
Safety assessment
Technology transfer from laboratory to pilot and commercial scale
Material generation (up to few Kgs)
Broad Modality Expertise
Batch chemistry without pressure
Batch chemistry with pressure
Vapor phase chemistry
Packed bed chemistry
Flow chemistry
Photochemistry
Electrochemistry
Fractional distillation
Crystallization
Column chromatography
Specific Chemistry Expertise
- Olefin nitration
- Scaletan editing (eg. nitrobenzene to pyridine)
- Olefin nitration
- Metal free reduction
- Silane chemistry
- Chloromethylation: Si + 2MeCl 🡪 MeXSiCl4-X
- Hydrochlorination: Si + 3HCl 🡪 HSiCl3
- Chlorination: Si + 2Cl2 🡪 SiCl4
- Alkoxylation: Si + MeOH/EtOH 🡪 SiH(OMe)3 / SiH(OEt)3
- Grignard: Si-Cl + RMgX 🡪 Si-R
- Hydrosilylation: Si-H + R-CH=CH2 🡪 Si-CH2-CH2-R
- Photochemistry
- Photochlorination
- Photobromination
- Photonitration
- Photocatalyzed cross coupling
- Nitration
- Aromatic C-nitration
- Aromatic N-nitration
- Aliphatic O-nitration
- Vapor phase nitration
- Chlorination
- Friedel Craft Aromatic chlorination
- Aliphatic chlorination
- Chlorination using chlorinating agents such SOCl2, POCl3, Cyanuric chloride
- Vapor phase chlorination
- Hydrolysis of benzyl/za/trichlorides alcohol, benzoylchloride, benzamide, benzoic acid, benzoates, etc.
- Aromatic nitrile preparation
- Hydrogenation
- Carbon dioxide to methanol
- Furfural to furan
- Isomerization
- Any other general organic chemistries
Equipment Available
- Dedicated fumehoods for carrying out various chemical reaction safely in the laboratory
- Flexible reaction stations with stirrers, thermostat, etc.
- Fixed bed reactor for carrying out vapor phase chemistry at high T&P
- Microreactors
- Autoclaves up to 500 mL capacity
- Fractional distillation setup
- Jacketed glass reactor
- Electrochemistry reaction stations
- High throughput parallel reaction stations for catalyst screening
- Flash chromatography column
- Cryogenic reaction station
- High throughput photochemistry screening stations for screening
- Photoreactor 3L for process development
- Rota vapors
- Gas Chromatography (GC)
- High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC)
- Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS)
- FT-IR
- Melting Point Boiling Point apparatus
- pH and conductivity meter
- Karl Fisher
- Glove Box
Note. Akown has in-house capability to customize the both glass and metal equipment quickly as per project need. For advanced analysis, we will collaborate with IIT Bombay or any other third party as per requirement.
Key Advisors
Dr. Debabrata Maiti Profile
Professor, Dept of Chemistry, IIT Bombay
Prof. Debabrata Maiti is a leading researcher in the field of chemical sciences, specializing in transition metal catalysis, C–H activation, and process intensification. Currently a Full Professor at IIT Bombay, his pioneering work has led to over 300 publications, more than 18,000 citations, and an h-index of 80.
He has been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2022), Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and multiple national and international awards for innovation and scientific excellence. Prof. Maiti also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Synlett and is on the editorial/advisory boards of leading international journals.
With academic training from Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.) and MIT (Postdoctoral Fellowship under Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald), Prof. Maiti has established one of the most active research groups in catalysis and sustainable chemistry. His team’s innovations extend to flow chemistry, electrochemistry, and photochemistry, bridging fundamental discoveries with scalable chemical manufacturing.
E-mail: dmaiti@chem.iitb.ac.in, dmaiti@iitb.ac.in
Website: https://www.dmaiti.com/dm
Apart from this, we have tied up various industry veterans whose expertise can be brought in as per project requirement.
