Book excerpt: Maintaining and enhancing its focus on key issues in the development, regulatory approval and use of stereoisomeric compounds, this edition continues to cover in detail all aspects of chiral drugs from the academic, governmental, industrial and clinical points of view.;Completely rewritten and updated throughout, Drug Stereochemistry: illustrates current indirect chromatographic methods for the resolution of drug enantiomers; treats the rapidly growing area of enantioselective gas chromatography; discusses the latest in HPLC resolution of enantiomeric drugs; uses verapamil as a model to show how stereoselective pharmacokinetics affect pharmacodynamics; and supplies an in-depth study on the effect of stereoselective plasma protein binding.;This edition offers entirely new chapters that: discuss the recent decisions and present position of the US Food and Drug Administration on the development of stereoisomeric drugs; explicate enzymatic synthesis of stereochemically pure drugs; review the toxicological, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic differences found among stereoisomers; elucidate the stereoselective transport of drugs across epithelia; and give a physician's perspective on the questions and problems caused by stereoisomeric drugs in practice as well as the pharmaceutical industry's collective viewpoint based on a national survey.