Fluorinated anesthetics show how advances in technology control pharmaceutical development

Technology is research driven, but research is also controlled by the state of technology within an organization. No technology is limitless. A research group can attempt to incrementally improve current technology or seek the next technological breakthrough. Volatile anesthetics have passed through two technology cycles: unfluorinated anesthetics and fluorinated racemic anesthetics. The evaluation of novel enantiomers may be viewed as the next technological advance.