Until recently, the majority of single-isomer drugs available were those derived from natural sources (e.g. morphine, epinephrine, hyoscine), and racemates predominated. There is now clear evidence of a trend in the pharmaceutical industry towards the development of chiral drugs. Several factors have influenced this trend, which has occurred independently and in parallel with a quest in the industry totally to develop more potent, selective and specific drugs. The process is equivalent to developing a new active substance and requires a new application, but data on the racemate may be used as appropriate, together with ‘bridging studies’. There is, however, limited potential in the market for the degree of therapeutic benefit obtained to justify the degree of investment. The real benefit of chiral technology lies in its application in the search for novel chemical entities and its appropriate formulation. This paper gives a brief idea about the importance of chirality, nomenclature, use of chiral excipients in formulations containing chiral drugs, stereoselective dissolution, stereoselective kinetics and dynamics, separation and estimation techniques and some interactions of chiral drugs. This paper also gives a brief overview of work done on chirality from formulation point of view.
Rapid Development of Chiral Drugs in the Pharmaceutical Industry
