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and trends of the advance of fluorine-containing pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, metabolism of fluorinated drugs, withdrawn fluorinated drugs, natural sources of organic and inorganic fluorine compounds in the environment (including the biosphere), sources of fluoride intake, and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.

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A Ni-catalyzed reductive cross-coupling reaction between two electrophiles, amides and aryl iodides, has been developed. This work is the first example using amide as an electrophile to couple with another electrophile, instead of using highly basic and pyrophoric nucleophiles. Furthermore, the Ni catalyst chemoselectively inserting the C-N bond of amide triggered the reductive cross-coupling reaction, which solves the problem that the Ni catalyst preferentially inserts the more reactive C-I bond to form a self-coupling product.

An unexpected Cu-catalyzed deoxygenative C2-sulfonylation reaction of quinoline N-oxides in the presence of radical initiator K2S2O8 was developed that used sodium sulfinate as a sulfonyl coupling partner. The mechanism studies indicate that the reaction proceeds via Minisci-like radical coupling step to give sulfonylated quinoline with good chemical yields.

A photoredox and copper catalyzed asymmetric cyanoalkylation reaction of alkenes has been developed, which uses alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide esters as alkylation reagents. In this radical cyanoalkylation reaction, the photoredox induced alkyl radical adds to styrene, and the generated benzylic radical couples with a chiral Box/CuII cyanide complex to achieve the enantioselective cyanation. This reaction features mild conditions, operational simplicity, broad substrate scope, high yields, and high enantioselectivities, which represents an efficient method for the asymmetric radical difunctionalization of alkenes.

Structural analysis of modern pharmaceutical practices allows for the identification of two rapidly growing trends: the introduction of tailor‐made amino acids and the exploitation of fluorinated motifs. Curiously, the former represents one of the most ubiquitous classes of naturally occurring compounds, whereas the latter is the most xenobiotic and comprised virtually entirely of man‐made derivatives. Herein, 39 selected compounds, featuring both of these traits in the same molecule, are profiled. The total synthesis, source of the corresponding amino acids and fluorinated residues, and medicinal chemistry aspects and biological properties of the molecules are discussed.