Recent Progress in the Synthesis of Super-Statins

Super-statins now represent a mature class of marketed drugs that faces the patent cliff, as has already occurred for fluvastatin and atorvastatin and is approaching for rosuvastatin and pitavastatin. However, they continue to trigger huge scientific interest in terms of their efficient preparation. This is not surprising, as easier accessibility of super-statins will promote even bigger demand in the market and consequently the need for higher rates of the production and productivity. Therefore, the stimulus for the development of even more efficient synthetic approaches to the heterocyclic moieties of super-statins and their chiral lateral-chain precursors is at a peak, as also for the assembly of the these two parts into super-statins. The present report summarizes recent developments in the field of the synthesis of super-statins published from 2010 to 2015. Emphasis is given to the analysis of novel approaches to the formation of the chiral statin lateral chain, with detailed discussion of the development of new routes to respective heterocyclic cores and the assembly of these key units into the final super-statin structure.