The scarcity of complex intermediates in pharmaceutical research motivates the pursuit of reaction optimization protocols on submilligram scales. We report here the development of an automated flow-based synthesis platform, designed from commercially available components, that integrates both rapid nanomole-scale reaction screening and micromole-scale synthesis into a single modular unit. This system was validated by exploring a diverse range of reaction variables in a Suzuki-Miyaura coupling on nanomole scale at elevated temperatures, generating liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry data points for 5760 reactions at a rate of >1500 reactions per 24 hours. Through multiple injections of the same segment, the system directly produced micromole quantities of desired material. The optimal conditions were also replicated in traditional flow and batch mode at 50- to 200-milligram scale to provide good to excellent yields.

Although crizotinib demonstrates robust efficacy in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small-cell lung carcinoma patients, progression during treatment eventually develops. Resistant patient samples revealed a variety of point mutations in the kinase domain of ALK, including the L1196M gatekeeper mutation. In addition, some patients progress due to cancer metastasis in the brain. Using structure-based drug design, lipophilic efficiency, and physical-property-based optimization, highly potent macrocyclic ALK inhibitors were prepared with good absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), low propensity for p-glycoprotein 1-mediated efflux, and good passive permeability. These structurally unusual macrocyclic inhibitors were potent against wild-type ALK and clinically reported ALK kinase domain mutations. Significant synthetic challenges were overcome, utilizing novel transformations to enable the use of these macrocycles in drug discovery paradigms. This work led to the discovery of 8k (PF-06463922), combining broad-spectrum potency, central nervous system ADME, and a high degree of kinase selectivity.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® Pharmaceutical Roundtable has assembled an updated list of key research areas to highlight transformations and reaction media where more sustainable technologies would be most impactful.

Amide couplings are one of, if not the most common chemical reactions performed in the pharmaceutical industry. Many amide bonds are generated with the help of highly active peptide coupling reagents. These reagents have garnered wide use in the pharmaceutical industry, but many contain high-energy functional groups. As a result, significant time is spent assessing the thermal stability of these reagents before scale-up commences. This paper assesses the thermal stability of 45 common peptide coupling reagents by differential scanning calorimetry and accelerating rate calorimetry. Those compounds which flagged as potentially impact-sensitive or potentially explosive were tested by drop hammer and explosivity screening techniques. The data are presented in an effort to drive the development of these reactions toward the use of one of the more thermally stable reagents.

DNA Encoded Libraries have proven immensely powerful tools for lead identification. The ability to screen billions of compounds at once has spurred increasing interest in DEL development and utilization. Although DEL provides access to libraries of unprecedented size and diversity, the idiosyncratic and hydrophilic nature of the DNA tag severely limits the scope of applicable chemistries. It is known that biomacromolecules can be reversibly, non-covalently adsorbed and eluted from solid supports, and this phenomenon has been utilized to perform synthetic modification of biomolecules in a strategy we have described as reversible adsorption to solid support (RASS). Herein, we present the adaptation of RASS for a DEL setting, which allows reactions to be performed in organic solvents at near anhydrous conditions opening previously inaccessible chemical reactivities to DEL. The RASS approach enabled the rapid development of C(sp 2 )-C(sp 3 ) decarboxylative cross-couplings with broad substrate scope, an electrochemical amination (the first electrochemical synthetic transformation performed in a DEL context), and improved reductive amination conditions. The utility of these reactions was demonstrated through a DEL-rehearsal in which all newly developed chemistries were orchestrated to afford a compound rich in diverse skeletal linkages. We believe that RASS will offer expedient access to new DEL reactivities, expanded chemical space, and ultimately more drug-like libraries.

The medicinal chemistry subgroup of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCI PR) offers a perspective on the current state of environmentally sustainable practices in medicinal chemistry with the aim of sharing best practices more widely and highlighting some potential future developments.

Crizotinib (1), an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2011, is efficacious in ALK and ROS positive patients. Under pressure of crizotinib treatment, point mutations arise in the kinase domain of ALK, resulting in resistance and progressive disease. The successful application of both structure-based and lipophilic-efficiency-focused drug design resulted in aminopyridine 8e, which was potent across a broad panel of engineered ALK mutant cell lines and showed suitable preclinical pharmacokinetics and robust tumor growth inhibition in a crizotinib-resistant cell line (H3122-L1196M).

The solvent effect on the Grignard reaction of benzyl, aryl and heteroaromatic substrates has been systematically evaluated based on reaction efficiency, ease of subsequent work-up, safety and greenness. 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF), which can be derived from renewable resources, had at least an equal if not a superior overall process most notably in suppressing the Wurtz coupling by-product from the benzyl Grignard reactions. It is therefore a recommended alternative solvent to Et 2 O and THF for the preparation of most Grignard reagents and their subsequent reactions. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See