AI-Enabled Route Scouting Service

Accelerate route selection and process development for the synthesis of your API. Lonza's AI-Enabled Route Scouting Services combine extensive proprietary commercial data with industry-leading computer-aided synthesis planning technology. Our experts use this capability to ensure partners access optimal synthetic pathways to their drug candidates, have more resilient raw material supply chains, and experience accelerated process R&D startup times. This AI-supported approach strengthens our broader route scouting, synthetic route scouting, API route scouting and chemical data scouting services across small molecule development.
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Shorter synthetic pathways
Identify shorter and higher-probability-of-success paths from accessible, ready-for-scale starting materials to API. These insights support informed API route scouting decisions.
More resilient supply chains
Make sourcing decisions that balance cost and risk, leveraging real-world global chemical data scouting services and supply chain intelligence.
Enhancement of IP estate
Complete comprehensive synthetic strategy assessments for first-generation process designs or lifecycle management campaigns.

Innovative technologies to accelerate route selection and process development

Our AI-Enabled Route Scouting Service is delivered with a methodical, collaborative, and transparent approach. In each phase, process research and development experts leverage innovative enabling technologies to realise optimal synthetic pathways for clinical and commercial API manufacturing.

Phase 01 – Route Creation and Prioritisation

We create and systematically prioritize synthetic route options, aimed at partner-driven, predefined process ideals. Our experts draw from their deep expertise and Lonza AI-enabled, predictive cheminformatics to mitigate complexity and define efficient synthetic pathways that support effective route scouting.

Phase 02 – Sourcing Intelligenc

We consolidate sourcing intelligence that enables our partners to take strategic sourcing decisions for the routes identified as having the greatest potential (technically and commercially). These insights integrate Lonza's proprietary chemical data scouting services.

Phase 03 – R&D Evaluation and Optimisation

Process Research & Development examines the effectiveness and performance of the top-rated, client-nominated process route candidates. Here, Lonza SMEs leverage high-throughput experimentation robotics and decades of development experience to expedite reduction in risk, costs, impurities and cycle times – strengthening outcomes for API route scouting.

We’re bringing real-world chemical information from many disparate locations and forms and structuring it in a way that helps our experts find shorter and more economical paths from starting materials to APIs.

— Dr. Simon Wagschal, Associate Director, Advanced Chemistry Technologies, Lonza Small Molecules

Computer-aided synthesis planning

Tailor outputs to development demands

Computer-aided synthesis planning (CASP) technologies calculate the shortest, highest-probability-of-success pathways for breaking down a target API into relevant starting materials. The discovery phase-focused compound libraries and pricing data of CASP technologies can limit their impact in the development phase.

By combining our intellectual capital with databases that are used by a leading AI-enabled CASP technology, we have tailored its performance to development needs — to deliver better route predictions and accelerate service startup times. Integration of our unique supply chain expertise lets us pass on direct benefits to our partners, helping to reduce API costs and enhance the commercial success of their promising new therapies.

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Assessment methodology

Give your objectives and priorities focus

Our collaborative classification and prioritization efforts create parameters that fall into two categories – Commercial and Technical — each aligned to API manufacturing process ideals.

They are set up to answer questions like:

  • “Is a raw material supply chain readied for rapid startup – and for scale – if I select this route?”
  • “Does the synthetic plan address well specific problematic features of the API or the incumbent synthesis?”

By agreeing on the fitness of proposed factors and their relative importance – using the scoring approach – the best-fit options will rise to the top.

Empower your company’s supply chain decision-making with raw material sourcing information for each top-rated route. For example, we present data about the number of raw material suppliers available, regionally, on a global basis.

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Meet the Expert – Roman Lagoutte, PhD

Senior Principal Scientist

Roman Lagoutte, PhD, is a Senior Principal Scientist in R&D at Lonza, where he leads AI-enabled route scouting efforts to accelerate the design and development of complex small molecule APIs. Based in Visp, he combines deep expertise in synthetic chemistry with advanced digital approaches to help customers identify efficient, scalable, and commercially viable manufacturing routes early in development.

Roman brings more than a decade of experience in process research and development, route scouting, and chemical innovation. Prior to joining Lonza, he held leadership roles at SpiroChem, including Director of Early PR&D, where he led multidisciplinary teams focused on route design and process optimization for challenging drug candidates.

He holds a PhD and MSc in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from The University of Salford, as well as an engineering degree in chemistry from SIGMA Clermont. His combined academic and industrial background enables him to bridge early discovery and process development—helping customers de-risk their programs and move more efficiently toward clinical and commercial success.

Roman Lagoutte by Image Studio
Meet the Expert – Dr. Aaron Johnson

Cheminformatics Data Scientist

Dr. Aaron Johnson is a cheminformatics data scientist in Lonza’s Small Molecules R&D team. With a versatile background in both chemistry and computer science, he fluently bridges the gap between these disciplines. Aaron’s work applies the latest advances in data science and cheminformatics to solving problems and accelerating product development in the pharmaceutical industry.

Aaron Johnson
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Global, high-quality facilities that bring your molecule to life
Bend, OR, USA
Visp, Switzerland
Nansha, China
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Frequently Asked Questions

AI-enabled route scouting helps you move faster by identifying the most efficient synthetic pathways from the start. By combining predictive cheminformatics with real-world data, Lonza can reduce the number of experimental iterations and enable quicker R&D startup—so you spend less time validating routes and gain more time to advance your molecule toward the clinic.

Unlike traditional route scouting, which often relies heavily on literature and manual expertise alone, Lonza’s approach integrates proprietary chemical data, supply chain intelligence, and AI-driven synthesis planning. This means your routes are not only scientifically viable but also commercially realistic—helping you avoid costly surprises later in development.

Yes—this is a core part of the service. Lonza evaluates raw material availability, supplier landscape, and global sourcing risks early in the process, allowing you to select routes that balance cost, scalability, and resilience. This proactive approach helps you avoid bottlenecks and ensures your supply chain is ready as your program grows.

Lonza uses a structured evaluation framework that balances technical performance (yield, complexity, impurity risk) with commercial factors like cost and supply security. By scoring and prioritizing routes based on your specific objectives, the team ensures you move forward with options that are not only feasible in the lab, but scalable and commercially competitive.

At Lonza, we support your molecule’s journey from its earliest days, bringing the same rigour to early-phase projects as we do to late-phase and commercial production. We believe that the earlier you plan, the better your outcomes. By utilizing AI Route Scouting at the absolute beginning of your early-phase development, you can define the optimal synthetic strategy before scaling up. This saves your team valuable time by reducing rework, protecting your IP, and ensuring a seamless transition to commercial manufacturing.