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Putting chirality to work: the strategy of chiral switches
Israel Agranat1, Hava Caner, John Caldwell
1Division of Biomedical Sciences, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom. isria@vms.huji.ac.il
Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery
|October 3, 2002
Abstract:
Most of the new drugs reaching the market today are single enantiomers, rather than the racemic mixtures that dominated up to ten years ago. Many of the new single-enantiomer drugs were developed as such, but there are also important examples of new single-enantiomer drugs derived from 'chiral switches' of established racemates. Indeed, a well-timed chiral switch can offer enhanced therapy and further profitability as a 'line extension' of a major racemic drug with patents that are expiring.