Does an anticancer drug have to attack the cancer cell itself? Pembrolizumab helped change the answer by targeting a molecular "brake" that tumors can use to suppress the immune response.
How far is 4-hydroxyacetophenone from acetaminophen? Surprisingly, not very far.
One atom is there to leave. Three are there to stay. That's the chemistry hidden inside 2,4,6-trifluorobenzoyl chloride.
When does a useful pharmaceutical ingredient become an impurity?
Can a molecule with only eight carbon atoms become part of the architecture of a modern insomnia medicine?
Can you recognize a drug before the molecule is finished? This compound gives us a fascinating chance to try.
What can a triangle do inside a drug molecule? Quite a lot. 1-Cyclopropylnaphthalene contains one of chemistry's smallest carbon rings—a cyclopropane—attached to the much larger, flat surface of naphthalene.
Its chemical name is almost a paragraph long. It contains two nitro groups, three fluorines, and a strange bridged ring.
Can a molecule from plant chemistry become part of a kidney medicine simply by changing its salt form?
What happens if you take folic acid apart? You discover another molecule hiding inside it.
Did you know that ibuprofen was originally developed as a safer alternative to aspirin?