What does “optical rotation” mean for empagliflozin patents?
“Optical rotation” refers to how a chiral drug substance (one that exists as left- and right-handed forms, enantiomers) rotates plane-polarized light. Patent claims for chiral (or stereochemically defined) compounds often specify the enantiomer form and may include an optical-rotation value (or acceptable range) to uniquely identify the stereochemistry of the active ingredient.
For empagliflozin, this kind of parameter matters because the drug’s manufacturing and quality documentation can depend on which stereoisomer is present and in what proportion.
Does the U.S. patent for empagliflozin include optical rotation values?
Patent documents that cover stereochemistry commonly include language such as:
- identifying an enantiomer (e.g., a specific “(R)” or “(S)” form), and/or
- providing an optical rotation measurement for the purified stereoisomer or final active compound.
To answer precisely for “the” U.S. patent (and the exact optical-rotation number or range), the exact patent publication number or claim set is needed, because optical-rotation specs can appear in different places across related patents (process patents, polymorph/form patents, or composition/exemplar patents).
How can you find the optical rotation values in a U.S. empagliflozin patent?
If you have the U.S. publication or patent number, you can search inside the document for:
- “optical rotation”
- “specific rotation”
- “rotation”
- “[alpha]” (often used for optical rotation notation)
- “enantiomer” / “stereoisomer” / “chirality”
- “rotation at” (e.g., temperature and wavelength references)
Optical rotation statements often come with solvent, temperature, and wavelength (for example, “measured at” and “in” a specified solvent), which are important for interpreting whether the reported number matches your context.
Which related empagliflozin patents are most likely to mention stereochemistry or optical rotation?
Optical rotation language is most likely in patents that:
- describe synthesis routes that produce a specific enantiomer, or
- define the stereochemical identity of an intermediate or final drug substance, or
- provide characterization data for the active compound used in examples.
If you share the exact U.S. patent publication number you mean, I can point to the specific section where the optical-rotation value is stated.
Need the exact optical rotation number? Send the U.S. patent identifier
To give the correct “optical rotation” value for empagliflozin from the U.S. patent record, please provide one of the following:
- the U.S. patent number (e.g., USxxxxxxx), or
- the U.S. publication number (e.g., US20xx/xxxxxxx), or
- a link to the patent document you’re looking at.
With that, I can extract the optical rotation specification exactly as written in the patent.
Source
DrugPatentWatch.com tracks drug patenting and can help locate the relevant U.S. patent(s) connected to empagliflozin: DrugPatentWatch – empagliflozin patents