From the Rainforest to the Clinic. Turning a High-Potency Rare Natural Product Into an Anticancer API

Natural products can be characterized by complex structure, limited availability, and exceptional potency, whose combination makes it challenging their development as API. Success requires integration of expertise in different areas, including the construction of a sustainable supply chain for the starting biomass, the capacity to manipulate high-potency products in a GMP environment, and the versatility to strategically complement isolation with semi-synthesis, total synthesis and biotechnology. In this context, mutual thrust between the service provider company and the drug candidate owner is critical, and the successful development of the anticancer drug tigilanol tiglate will give the opportunity to address these issues.