Efficient catalyst developed for producing pronucleotides
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

(Phys.org)-A team of researchers with Merck & Co., Inc. has developed an efficient catalyst for producing pronucleotides, paving the way perhaps to a new class of drugs for combatting viruses and cancer. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes the experiments they conducted that led to identification of the components of the catalyst and how well it worked when used to create a hepatitis C virus inhibitor.