Chiral Chemistry Enables Firms To Try New Twists On Old Drugs

Sidebar: New Ways To Separate Enantiomers Photo: Malboro Photo SUCCESS IN SEPARATION: Sepracor researchers found that the S-enantiomer of Prozac worked well in preventing migraine, says Dean Handley. A trend in the pharmaceutical industry toward increasing use of chiral chemistry techniques is leading to safer new drugs, while coaxing novel uses from existing blockbuster compounds. These techniques separate drugs that occur in two mirror-image molecular forms, called enantiomers. Louis Pasteur

Written byRicki Lewis

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Sidebar: New Ways To Separate Enantiomers

INTRICATE ROLES: Louisiana State's Isiah Warner notes that determining the side effects of enantiomers is not always a straightforward task.

Unraveling the roles of enantiomers is not always straightforward. "In many cases, the mirror-image enantiomer of an active compound is innocuous. In other cases, it may be extremely toxic and cause side effects. And together, the enantiomers might produce effects that are not common to either alone," says Isiah Warner, chairman of the chemistry department at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Developing racemic (mixed-enantiomer) drugs is on the way out, industry analysts say, because pharmaceutical companies must evaluate the individual enantiomers and the combination. "Nearly every pharmaceutical company we deal with doesn't even talk about using a racemate, because it costs more to develop. The company has to put three products through clinical trials, not one," explains Roger Pettman, vice president for sales ...

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