Case studies of fluorine in drug discovery

Aryl trifluoromethyl ethers (OCF₃), aryl difluoromethyl ethers (OCHF₂), and aromatic sulfur pentafluorides (SF₅) are of particular interest in drug design due to their favorable properties including high chemical and metabolic stability, suitable lipophilicity, unique electronic properties, definitive conformational characteristics, and their roles in molecular recognition in binding sites of biological targets. The deployments of these functional groups are relatively rare, although these compounds are increasingly found in pharmaceutical agents. This chapter describes a number of FDA-approved drugs and drug candidates that contain OCF₃, OCHF₂, and SF₅ groups: Riluzole for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Delamanid and Pretomanid for tuberculosis, Pantoprazole for erosive esophagitis, Roflumilast for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ELQ-300 and DSM-265 for malaria, BMS-665053 for depression, and a fluoro-analog of Rimonabant for obesity. The successful case studies substantiate the prominence of their utilities and synthetic enablement in drug discovery research.