Leo Pharma and Scripps make ingenol production breakthrough

Leo Pharma and the Scripps Research Institute have made an important breakthrough in their research to accelerate the production of ingenol, a highly complex, plant-derived compound.

The organisations have achieved the first efficient chemical synthesis of the substance, an achievement that will help scientists to synthesise a wide variety of ingenol derivatives and investigate their therapeutic properties.

Ingenol forms the basis of Picato – Leo Pharma's topical medication for actinic keratosis – and up until this point, it was not known whether or not it was possible to produce the compound using a short synthesis sequence.

Leo Pharma entered into its collaboration with the Scripps Research Institute in late 2011 in order to investigate the feasibility of this technique, with the results of their research having been published in Science Express earlier this month.

Michael Sierra, director of external discovery at Leo Pharma, said: "It's a pretty amazing feat; the total synthesis of ingenol within a year and a half of starting our collaboration. It's great to work with a research group of this calibre."