Alkeus Pharma's lead compound, ALK-001, is an oral compound with a well-understood mechanism of action. ALK-001 was specifically designed to prevent the formation of these toxic vitamin A dimers in the eye. ALK-001 is a chemically-modified vitamin A, in which 3 hydrogen atoms have been replaced by 3 deuterium atoms at carbon number 20. Replacing the retina's vitamin A with ALK-001 slows the formation of toxic vitamin A dimers. ALK-001 is in phase II clinical trials for the treatment of Stargardt's disease. The compound was co-developed by Alkeus Pharmaceuticals and Columbia University.

Phencyclidine is an illegal, hallucinogenic drug that was initially used as an anesthetic agent in the 1950s and early 1960s, but was then withdrawn in 1965 because of dissociative hallucinogenic effects that were often disturbing and sometimes severe and prolonged. Phencyclidine is a noncompetitive NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist and glutamate receptor antagonist, but also interacts with other receptor sites, and may have effects with dopamine, opioid and nicotinic receptors. Phencyclidine disrupts the functioning of receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays a major role in the perception of pain as well as in learning, memory, and emotion. It also influences the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which causes the euphoria associated with drug use. Phencyclidine overdose deaths may occur after taking a large dose, though many phencyclidine related deaths result from delusions and other psychological consequences of the drug’s use. There have been reports of death due to accidental drowning, leaping from high places, and motor vehicle accidents in addition to violent episodes of self-mutilation, suicides, and homicides.

Chugai Pharma Europe is developing CH-5132799, a phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, for the treatment of solid tumours. CH-5132799 is a selective class I PI3K inhibitor with potent antitumor activity against tumors harboring the PIK3CA mutations. CH-5132799 selectively inhibits class I PI3Ks, PI3Kα (IC50 = 0.014 uM ), PI3Kβ (IC50 = 0.12 uM ), PI3Kδ (IC50 = 0.50 uM ), PI3Kγ (IC50 = 0.036 uM ), but shows less inhibition of class II PI3Ks, class III PI3k and mTOR and also no inhibitory activity (IC50 > 10 uM) against 26 protein kinases. CH-5132799 exhibits more inhibitory activities against PI3Kα with oncogenic mutations E542K (IC50 = 6.7 nM), E545K (IC50 = 6.7 nM) and H1047R (IC50 = 5.6 nM) than wild-type PI3Kα. CH-5132799 treated breast cnacer KPL-4 cells, which harbor the PIK3CA mutation, phosphorylation of Akt and its direct substrates, PRAS40 and FoxO1/3a and phosphorylation of downstream factors, including S6K, S6 and 4E-BP1, are effectively suppressed. Cancer cell lines harboring PIK3CA mutations are significantly sensitive to CH-5132799. CH-5132799 is orally available and showed significant antitumor activity in PI3K pathway-activated human cancer xenograft models in mice. CH-5132799 is in phase I study to evaluate safety, pharmacokinetics and activity of CH-5132799 administered orally as a single agent in patients with advanced solid tumors.