This process was patented and sold to Hoffmann-La Roche in 1935.[chronology citation needed] The first commercially sold vitamin C product was called Cebion from Merck.[citation needed]
Even today all industrial methods for the production of ascorbic acid are based on the Reichstein process. In modern methods however, sorbose is directly oxidized with a platinum catalyst (developed by Kurt Heyns (1908–2005) in 1942). This method avoids the use of protective groups. A side product with particular modification is 5-Keto-D-gluconic acid.[3]
Novel methods involve genetically modified bacteria.[4]