The 2010 patent landscape for spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Discovery of small molecular inhibitors for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is a major ongoing effort within the pharmaceutical industry. Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) is one of leading small molecular targets with regard to clinical development primarlly due to efforts by Rigel and Portola. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the SYK patent landscape. The patent literature we evaluated relates to any organization that has filed applications that imply that SYK is the intended target. The interest in SYK was initiated in the early 2000's with many organizations, including several large pharmaceutical companies, and has been active for years. In general, the structural theme of most of the compounds in these applications is a traditional ATP competitive inhibitor with each organization having a different hinge binding element. In general, the attachment to the hinge is an aryl amine that is decorated with a solubilizing group. The other substituents are broadly variable across the numerous companies indicating that SYK has significant flexibility in its interactions in that portion of the kinase. This overview of the SYK patent literature and the learnings of the inhibitors' substitution patterns would be an important reference for anyone working in this area.