Conversion of Racemic Profens to (S)-Profens

Some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as profens (ibuprofen, naproxen, fenoprofen, ketoprofen, or flurbiprofen) can exist and are sold worldwide as a mixture of mirror image compounds called enantiomers (a racemic mixture) where one mirror image has the desired pain, fever, and inflammation reducing effects (referred to as (S)-enantiomer) and the other undesired mirror image (referred to as (R)-enantiomer) does not or may even have harmful side effects.  Thus the efficacy of profen drugs can be improved and side effects reduced by isolating and administering only the desired (S)-profen as opposed to consuming its racemic mixture, (R) and (S)-profens.  In addition, the manufacture of pure single enantiomer pharmaceuticals is a multibillion dollar a year industry and is now required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Whereas previous methods wasted the undesired profen enantiomer, (R)-profens, we propose to convert several examples to the desired mirror image drug, (S)-profens, using a combination of relatively inexpensive chemical and enzymatic methods.