Hmmm. . .here's an article in the "ASAP" section of the J. Med. Chem. web site. And it's on some compounds in the same therapeutic class that we're working in! Hot news! We finally know what those guys are up to. . .hold it. How long has this paper been sitting around, anyway? I still haven't written up that other project from three years ago - are these guys any better? Why does a paper always seem like breaking news when it's in the preprint section, anyway? It's like headlining the latest arrival in a crypt. At least it does if it's in J. Med. Chem.

Well, it does tell us something we didn't know. I think. But what about that poster that was at the fall ACS meeting? Wasn't that from this same series of compounds? How far in advance do you have to submit those posters, anyway?

They must have patent coverage on this stuff if they're going to go around giving posters and writing up papers. It's got to be in one of those that we already know about. .let's check the ol' patent site here. Yep, eight separate patent filings - don't these people have anything better to do? I hate generic claims - "We claim everything with more than three carbons in it from here to Diego Garcia. We claim that other stuff you're thinking about. We claim yo' mama." By the time you get three pages into this stuff, you're up to your earlobes in definitions for "R38c" and "group ZZX".

But this one looks like it might be the thing - hm, if R3 can be hydrogen, yep, when R5 is lower alkyl, yeah, that's the stuff. So when did they file this thing? In. . .in fall of 2002. Great. Means they were working on it in that spring at the latest. Two years ago - who knows what they're up to now? Come back in three years and I can read about it in the journals, I guess.

The only thing that makes me feel good about the whole thing is that they don't have any better idea what we're up to. Maybe next year we'll flip a card over and give them something to think about. . .