Over the last two decades, fluorine substitution has become one of the essential structural traits in modern pharmaceuticals. Thus, about half of the most successful drugs (blockbuster drugs) contain fluorine atoms. In this review, we profile 17 fluorine‐containing drugs approved by the food and drug administration (FDA) in 2018. The newly approved pharmaceuticals feature several types of aromatic F and CF3, as well as aliphatic (CF2) substitution, offering advances in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer, HIV, malarial and smallpox infections.

Over the last 100–120 years, due to the ever-increasing importance of fluorine-containing compounds in modern technology and daily life, the explosive development of the fluorochemical industry led to an enormous increase of emission of fluoride ions into the biosphere. This made it more and more important to understand the biological activities, metabolism, degradation, and possible environmental hazards of such substances. This comprehensive and critical review focuses on the effects of fluoride ions and organofluorine compounds (mainly pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals) on human health and the environment. To give a better overview, various connected topics are also discussed: reasons and trends of the advance of fluorine-containing pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, metabolism of fluorinated drugs, withdrawn fluorinated drugs, natural sources of organic and inorganic fluorine compounds in the environment (including the biosphere), sources of fluoride intake, and finally biomarkers of fluoride exposure.

The 50-year-old allylboration reaction has seen dramatic developments since the dawn of the new century after the first catalytic asymmetric versions came into play. In the past decade alone, several methodologies capable of achieving the desired homoallylic alcohols in over 90% ee have been developed. This review focuses on the chiral Brønsted acid catalyzed allylboration reaction, covering everything from the very first examples and precedents to modern day variations and applications.1 Introduction2 Early Developments3 Synthetic Applications4 Variants5 Computational Contribution6 Conclusions

A variety of enantioenriched fluorinated 6H-cyclopenta[c]pyridin-6-one bicycles, a scaffold present in several classes of monoterpenic alkaloids with varied biological activity, were synthesized in just five steps starting from simple aldehyde starting materials. The synthesis presented wide functional group tolerance and moderate to high yields and diastereoselectivities, and could be carried out at gram-scale. These products were suitable for further transformations, such as hydrogenation and deprotection of the tert-butyl sulfonyl protecting group.