Since the discovery of vinblastine and vincristine in the late 1950s, vinca alkaloids have become one of the most powerful drug types currently in use for the clinical treatment of cancer. Over the past four decades, synthetic efforts [1] have led to the discovery of the major semisynthetic drugs vinorelbine (1)[2] and, more recently, vinflunine (2).[3] The industrial synthesis of 1 and 2 relies on the biomimetic coupling of catharanthine (3) and vindoline ( ...
