It is well established that an enantiomerically pure compound exhibiting advantageous properties not present in its isomer or its corresponding racemic mixture, can be patented even if its ...

Natural products derived from plants, fungi, and even microbes have been fruitful sources of drugs. Now research shows that their chemical mirror images may be an underexplored source of potential ...

Enantiomers, or molecule pairs that are mirror images of each other, make up more than half of FDA-approved drugs in use today, including those used in treatments for cancer, neurologic diseases and ...

From 2001 to 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration approved 9 single-enantiomer drugs with racemic precursors. None showed pre-approval evidence of improved efficacy over the racemic precursor. We ...

In chemistry, breaking a mirror isn’t always a harbinger of bad luck. Using a trio of catalysts and some blue light, researchers have transformed a racemic mixture of mirror-image molecules into a ...

Single-enantiomer drugs account for nearly 40% of the global pharmaceutical market. The author analyzes the current market for single-enantiomer drugs, their role as a generic drug defense strategy, ...

Recognizing and separating enantiomers is a difficult task for chemical engineers — one might say it gives them a bit of a headache. Enantiomers are molecules with virtually identical compositions ...

Stereochemistry relates to the spatial organization of atoms in a molecule. Often molecules having the same chemical makeup can exist in different spatial arrangements. These related molecules are ...

The shape of life’s building blocks is the result of biology, chemistry, and quantum physics colliding.

Resolution technologies remain crucial for commercial-scale chiral API production. The vast majority of new small-molecule drug candidates are chiral, and methods must be identified for obtaining the ...