Fluorinated scaffolds for antimalarial drug discovery.

Fluorinated molecules represent a reliable strategy to develop new antimalarial drugs. Fluorine or fluorinated groups have been identified as a promising precursor, and their presence in approximately twenty-five percent of approved drugs is notable. Selective fluorination of chemical entities has the potential to be applied not only to improve the activity profile against the malaria parasite, but could be extrapolated for favorable pharmacological applications. Hazardous reagents such as HF, F2 and SF4 used for fluorination, are not considered as safe, and therefore, this process remains challenging, particularly for the pharmaceutical industry.