In the past five years, more than fifty fluorine-containing small molecule drugs were approved by FDA for the treatment of several kinds of diseases. In 2018, seventeen fluorine-containing drugs were approved, which feature twelve aromatic fluorine, six aromatic CF
3, and one aliphatic CF
2 substitutions [
27]. These drugs were used for the treatment of chronic immune thrombocytopenia, melanoma, intra-abdominal infections, lung cancer, breast cancer, influenza, smallpox infections, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, (human immunodeficiency virus) HIV, malarial, pain associated with endometriosis, prostate cancer, cystic fibrosis and myeloid leukemia. In 2019, eleven fluorine-containing drugs were approved [
28], which feature five aromatic fluorine, three aromatic CF
3, three aliphatic CF
3, and one aromatic CF
3O substituents. These drugs were approved for the therapeutic areas, such as schizophrenia, migraine, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, rheumatoid arthritis, anti-tuberculosis, breast cancer, lymphoma kinase inhibitor, and serotonin receptor antagonist. In 2020, thirteen fluorine-containing small molecule drugs were approved [
41], and the fluorine-containing substituents include eleven aromatic fluorine, one aromatic CF
3, one aliphatic CHF, and one CF
2 groups. These drugs were developed for the treatment of Cushing’s disease, neurofibromatosis, myelodysplastic syndromes, lung cancer, advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease, myelodysplastic syndromes, and hereditary angioedema attacks. In 2021, nine new fluorine-containing drugs were approved. These small molecular drugs feature eight aromatic fluorine, one aliphatic CHF, one aromatic CF
3, one aliphatic CF
3, and one CClF
2 groups. The therapeutic areas of these fluorine-containing drugs include multiple myeloma, lymphoma, HIV, chronic heart failure, chronic myeloid leukemia, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, migraines, von Hippel-Lindau disease, and non-small cell lung cancer [
42]. In 2022, four new fluorine-containing drugs were approved [
35], which feature three aromatic fluorine, two aliphatic CF
2, one alkenyl CF groups, one aromatic CF
3, and two aliphatic CF
3 substituents. The therapeutic areas included non-small cell lung cancer, HIV, recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis, helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection. As presented above, there are some interesting trends in the drugs containing fluoro/fluoroalkyl groups. Aromatic fluorine is most used moiety in these drugs, and a high percentage of the related drugs were observed each year. Also, several kinds of aliphatic fluoro groups have been introduced into the drugs in very recent years, including CHF, CF
2, CClF
2, and so on. On the other hand, an increased proportion of chiral fluorinated drugs were approved in enantiomerically pure form, and even the chiral C-F center (belzutifan) was observed in 2021.