Determination of the Absolute Configurations of Chiral Drugs Using Chiroptical Spectroscopy

Abstract

Chiroptical spectroscopy has emerged as a promising tool for the determination of absolute configurations and predominant conformations of chiral molecules in academic laboratories. This promise has led to the adaption of chiroptical spectroscopic methods as valuable tools in chiral drug discovery research programs of the pharmaceutical industry. Most major pharmaceutical companies have invested in in-house chiroptical spectroscopy applications and reported successful outcomes. In the context of continuously increasing applications of chiroptical spectroscopy for chiral molecular structure determination, a review of recent developments and applications for chiral drugs is presented in this manuscript.

Keywords

• chiral
• spectroscopy
• drugs
• electronic circular dichroism
• optical rotation
• vibrational circular dichroism
• vibrational Raman optical activity
• absolute configuration
• conformation