No doubt Fluorine is an extremely important element for Medicinal chemistry. There are tons of reviews with numerous examples of cases when the introduction of Fluorine or fluorinated groups led to the improvement of activity, selectivity, ADME-properties of the molecules therefore every year we commonly see many fluorinated molecules among FDA-approved drugs.

Deucravacitinib(FDA-approved on September 9, 2022)

A week ago, FDA-approved TYK2 inhibitor deucravacitinib (trade name Sotyktu) for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and there are several reasons which make the news remarkable.

Last week there was news that is remarkable for the Ukrainian chemical community. Kyiv administration agreed on the renaming of Murmanska street. Now this street will be named after Academician Valery Kukhar.

Such a renaming is a part of the huge campaign in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities aiming to remove the names of Russian-related names of streets, squares and other objects and give them actual names.

There are not so much info in the media about this story however I suppose it is remarkable. And while it is not completely my topic, I suppose it is worth sharing, because it obviously demonstrates how innovative products of biotech can help Ukraine today.

Structures of first DUBTACs (from Nature Chemical Biology volume 18, pages 412–421, 2022)

Few weeks ago a new biotech appeared on the map: Vicinitas Therapeutics launched with $65 Million in Series A. The company is focused on developing small-molecule drugs that stop the degradation of specific proteins to restore their levels for therapeutic benefit. The main value and basis of the biotech is the research of Daniel Nomura’s lab at UC Berkeley on so-called Deubiquitinase-targeting chimeras (or DUBTACs) for targeted protein stabilization.

Because of the war I’ve missed the news about the death of Sidney Altman on April 5, 2022. Altman is outstanding researcher, who first discovered the catalytical properties of RNA. He shared the Nobel prize in Chemisry with Thomas Cech in 1989. Their research results seem even more important nowadays when RNA-targeted drugs becomes reality.

Three months of the full-scale ruzzian invasion are over however it’s still really heartwarming for as at Enamine to get more and more words and signs of support from our customers and partners. The recent example is our joint letter to Science journal initiated by our friends from UCSF John J. Irwin and Brian K. Shoichet.