Ozanimod, recently approved for treating relapsing MS, produced a disproportionate, active, MAO B-catalyzed metabolite (CC112273) that showed remarkable interspecies differences and led to challenges in safety testing. This study explored the kinetics of CC112273 formation from its precursor RP101075. Incubations with human liver mitochondrial fractions revealed K Mapp , V max and Cl int for CC112273 formation to be 4.8 M, 50.3 pmol/min/mg protein and 12 l/min/mg, respectively, while K M with human recombinant MAO B was 1.1 M. Studies with liver mitochondrial fractions from preclinical species led to K Mapp , V max and Cl int estimates of 3.0, 35 and 33 M, 80.6, 114, 37.3 pmol/min/mg and 27.2, 3.25 and 1.14 l/min/mg in monkey, rat and mouse, respectively, and revealed marked differences between rodents and primates, primarily attributable to differences in the K M . Comparison of Cl int estimates revealed monkey to be ~two-fold more efficient and the mouse and rat to be 11 and 4-fold less efficient than humans in CC112273 formation. The influence of stereochemistry on MAO B-mediated oxidation was also investigated using the R-isomer of RP101075 (RP101074). This showed marked selectivity towards catalysis of the S-isomer (RP101075) only. Docking into MAO B crystal structure suggested that even though both the isomers occupied its active site, only the orientation of RP101075 presented the C-H on the -carbon that was ideal for the C-H bond cleavage, which is a requisite for oxidative deamination. These studies explain the basis for the observed interspecies differences in the metabolism of ozanimod as well as the substrate stereospecificity for formation of CC112273.