N-(Methanesulfonyl)-16-phenoxyprostaglandincarboxamides: tissue-selective, uterine stimulants.

In an effort to develop tissue-selective prostaglandin analogues resistant to the metabolic inactivating pathways of the natural materials, hybrid compounds modified both at C-1 with a sulfonimide moiety and in the n-amylcarbinol side chain with substituted phenoxy groups were synthesized and evaluated in a variety of in vitro models. Several of these analogues exhibited potent, tissue-selective, uterine stimulant activity, a finding subsequently confirmed in clinical studies with one member of this series, N-(methanesulfonyl)-16-phenoxy-omega-tetranor-PGE2-carboxamide (CP-34089/ZK-57671, sulprostone).