Process research and development for a tetrazole-based growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) pharmaceutical development candidate.

BMS-317180 (1) is a potent, orally active agonist of the human growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) receptor. This manuscript details the process research and development efforts that enabled the synthesis of the phosphate salt of 1 on a multi-kilogram scale. Key considerations in the development of this process focused on safe execution and the requirement for telescoped synthetic transformations (i.e., without isolation of intermediate products) to contend with a lack of suitably crystalline products.

Mild and general methods for the palladium-catalyzed cyanation of aryl and heteroaryl chlorides.

[reaction: see text] New methods for the palladium-catalyzed cyanation of aryl and heteroaryl chlorides have been developed, featuring sterically demanding, electron-rich phosphines. Highly challenging electron-rich aryl chlorides, in addition to electron-neutral and electron-deficient substrates, as well as nitrogen- and sulfur-containing heteroaryl chlorides can all undergo efficient cyanation under relatively mild conditions using readily available materials. In terms of substrate scope and temperature, these methods compare very favorably with the state-of-the-art cyanations of aryl chlorides.

Palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of aryl chlorides.

Collectively, palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions represent some of the most powerful and versatile tools available to synthetic organic chemists. Their widespread popularity stems in part from the fact that they are generally tolerant to a large number of functional groups, which allows them to be employed in a wide range of applications. However, for many years a major limitation of palladium-catalyzed coupling processes has been the poor reactivity of aryl chlorides, which from the standpoints of cost and availability are more attractive substrates than the corresponding bromides, iodides, and triflates. Traditional palladium/triarylphosphane catalysts are only effective for the coupling of certain activated aryl chlorides (for example, heteroaryl chlorides and substrates that bear electron-withdrawing groups), but not for aryl chlorides in general. Since 1998, major advances have been described by a number of research groups addressing this challenge; catalysts based on bulky, electron-rich phosphanes and carbenes have proved to be particularly mild and versatile. This review summarizes both the seminal early work and the exciting recent developments in the area of palladium-catalyzed couplings of aryl chlorides.

Pd/P(t-Bu)(3): a mild and general catalyst for Stille reactions of aryl chlorides and aryl bromides.

Pd/P(t-Bu)(3) serves as an unusually reactive catalyst for Stille reactions of aryl chlorides and bromides, providing solutions to a number of long-standing challenges. An unprecedented array of aryl chlorides can be cross-coupled with a range of organotin reagents, including SnBu(4). Very hindered biaryls (e.g., tetra-ortho-substituted) can be synthesized, and aryl chlorides can be coupled in the presence of aryl triflates. The method is user-friendly, since a commercially available complex, Pd(P(t-Bu)(3))(2), is effective. Pd/P(t-Bu)(3) also functions as an active catalyst for Stille reactions of aryl bromides, furnishing the first general method for room-temperature cross-couplings.

A Convenient and General Method for Pd-Catalyzed Suzuki Cross-Couplings of Aryl Chlorides and Arylboronic Acids.

From only commercially available reagents a wide array of Suzuki cross-couplings of aryl chlorides with arylboronic acids can be effected in excellent yield [Eq. (a)]. This development provides a general solution to a long-standing limitation of this extremely powerful process-the poor reactivity of inexpensive and readily accessible aryl chlorides. dba=dibenzylideneacetone.