January 25, 2019

Jarkko Rautio, The expanding role of prodrugs in drug design and development

10.15-11.15, B7:101a, BMC, Uppsala. No pre-registration is needed.

Host:  Katarina Färnegårdh

The current interest in prodrugs is evident. Since 2008, the FDA has approved at least 33 prodrugs such as tenofoviralafenamide, selexipagand latanoprostenebunod. Approximately 10% of all marketed drugs worldwide can be considered prodrugs. Consideration of prodrug strategies has indeed become an integral part in drug discovery process. Prodrug strategies are often invoked to overcome liabilitiesin the physicochemical properties of a molecule that limit formulation options and result in unacceptable biopharmaceutical performance. Similarly, modifications in physicochemical properties can be used to overcome barriers for ADMET properties. This seminar will demonstrate the versatility of prodrugs strategies to overcome various ADMET barriers with examples of successful prodrugs developed in industry and in academia.

A short speaker biography:

Jarkko Rautio is professor in pharmaceutical chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland (UEF). His research focuses on the chemistry-based methods, especially prodrugs, to overcome drug delivery liabilities of problematic drug candidates. He has published over 50 papers and book chapters on prodrugs – two of these in Nature publication series. Much of his research is currently focusing on exploiting one of the body’s natural mechanisms for transporting amino acids, the LAT1 protein, for targeted drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and cancer cells that express this transporter.