A drug of two halves: New artificial compounds composed of a macrosphelidecore skeleton and an epothilone side chain were designed and synthesized. These compounds were more potent inducers of apoptosis than the parent natural‐type macrosphelides.
Total synthesis of 2-nor-macrosphelides, a 15-membered analogue of 16-membered natural macrosphelides, is described. The synthesis was accomplished starting from methyl L-(+)-lactate as a sole chiral source with a high efficiency.