Ocera Therapeutics fka OCRX

[bbking2003]

Macrocycles: Going Where No Drugs Have Gone Before
By Mari Serebrov Washington Editor
Big pharma and biotech start-ups have embarked on a federated mission to explore the expansive chemical space between small molecules and biologics to seek out new therapies that will boldly go where no drugs have gone before.
In this voyage of discovery, one focus is on synthetic macrocycles. “Nature has been using macrocycles for its purposes for many, many years,” Mark Peterson, vice president of intellectual property and operations at Tranzyme Pharma Inc., told BioWorld Today. Macrocycles, especially in the form of antibiotics, seem to be nature’s way of responding to some difficult problems.
While macrocycles are naturally found in the universe, today’s explorers are seeking ways to design synthetic, fixed-ringed compounds that will mimic the benefits of http://www.ensembletx.com/news/pdfs/pr20111128.pdf