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. 2023 Jun 12;14(7):875-878.
doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.3c00214. eCollection 2023 Jul 13.

Anti-infectives Developed as Racemic Drugs in the 21st Century: Norm or Exception?

Diego González Cabrera  1 , Dennis A Smith  2 , Gregory S Basarab  1 , James Duffy  3 , Thomas Spangenberg  4 , Kelly Chibale  1   5   5
Affiliations

Anti-infectives Developed as Racemic Drugs in the 21st Century: Norm or Exception?

Diego González Cabrera et al. ACS Med Chem Lett. .

Abstract

This viewpoint outlines the case for developing new chemical entities (NCEs) as racemates in infectious diseases and where both enantiomers and racemate retain similar on- and off-target activities as well as similar PK profiles. There are not major regulatory impediments for the development of a racemic drug, and minimizing the manufacturing costs becomes a particularly important objective when bringing an anti-infective therapeutic to the marketplace in the endemic settings of infectious diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following competing financial interest(s): T.S. is an employee of Ares Trading SA, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of NCEs, approved or entering phase III, by year.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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