Összefoglaló. A tavalyi évben kitört COVID–19 pandémia jelentős kihívások elé állította a világot. Nem pusztán a kormányok és az egészségügyi rendszerek szembesültek új, békeidőben eddig még nem gyakorolt feladatokkal, de a tudományos világnak is át kellett tekinteni mind a régi, mind a legmodernebb eszközöket ahhoz, hogy a vírus terjedésének, a betegek szenvedéseinek, a tömeges halálozásoknak végre véget lehessen vetni. Habár a járványnak még messze nincsen vége, és egyre újabb és újabb mutánsok ütik fel a fejüket a világ legkülönbözőbb részein, mégis azokat a tanulságokat, melyek már összegyűltek a gyógyszeripar területén, érdemes összefoglalni. Talán még ennél is fontosabb azonban, hogy azokat a hiányokat, amelyeket még be kell pótolni, szintén megemlítsük, hogy ezzel is segítsük az újabb hullámok vagy járványok leküzdését.

Summary. During the last 12 months the most serious issue was the SARS-CoV-2 virus generated pandemia around the world. There is no country which could be more or less intact and a huge amount of resources was sacrificed to rescue people from the fatal outcome of this disease. When it started a year ago or more, there were doubts about its future but later it was realised that this is an epidemic occurring worldwide, crossing international boundaries, and affecting a large number of people. According to the WHO, today the number of confirmed cases is about 157.8 million, confirmed deaths are 3.3 million and 1.2 billion vaccine doses have been administered. These numbers clearly show how important it is to elaborate the reaction of the pharma industry and investigate how to ensure safe drug supply for patients in every country. The topics discussed below are the basic and unique features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the pandemia generated by it, and the role of the Hungarian pharma industry, especially Gedeon Richter plc, during this critical period. On one hand the author explains how the spread of virus can be decreased in general and at a production facility like Richter, and on the other hand R&D activity of the Company aiming to cure patients suffering from COVID-19 infection. Consortia including universities, academia and industrial entities made a substantial impact on handling this terrible epidemic. Gedeon Richter plc, the biggest and only independent Hungarian pharma company, in keeping with its roots started small molecule R&D to make favipiravir and remdesivir available to clinics. The latter production is a very difficult one but using its background in chemistry Richter was able to manage all R&D and industrial scale up activities in six months. Moreover, it has filed two patent applications about its new, more feasible and economical process steps justifying its innovative attitude. As a final conclusion it is stated that for the safe supply of necessary medication one critical step is missing from the capabilities of the Hungarian pharma industry, the vaccine R&D and production.

In medicinal chemistry, the development of synthetic procedures for the access of new heterocyclic systems as potential scaffolds is elementary. Herein, we report our results on the formation of small drug-like heterocycles, utilizing flow chemistry. This approach enables the extension of the reaction parameter window, including high-pressure/high-temperature or hazardous chemistry. In our work, various novel condensed tricyclic benzothiazoles fused with furo- and thieno-rings were synthesized applying a multistep continuous-flow protocol. The process includes two ring closure steps and a nitro group reduction step. Batch and telescoped continuous-flow syntheses were also designed and performed.