Described are four
process research investigations directedtoward discerning a scalable, enantioselective method for
pre
paring (
S)-
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-amino acid ester
3, a key intermediate to the
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pha.gif" BORDER=0>
v
3 integrin antagonist
1. Re
ported are an asymmetric Michaelreaction a
pproach, attem
pts to enantioselectively hydrogenatean enamine, resolution of (±)-
3 via diastereomeric salt formation, and a synthetic route em
ploying a novel, diastereoselectiveimino-Reformatsky reaction. This last research initiative
provedsuccessful and was em
ployed as the enabling route to initialAPI su
pply. Process develo
pment of this enabling chemistry isre
ported. The technical issues researched and o
ptimized were(1) the necessity of em
ploying MEM-
protection for high yieldand diastereoselectivity in the imino-Reformatsky reaction, (2)the reaction kinetics of MEM chloride hydrolysis and thea
pplication of these data to an on-scale quench
procedure, (3)the efficient formation of the (
S)-
phenylglycinol imine
15 inNMP and a dehydration of this
product solution on-scale,em
ploying molecular sieves, (4) a calorimetric study of theReformatsky reaction and the a
pplication of these data, (5) there
placement of Pb(OAc)
4 with NaIO
4 and the use of methylamine to sequester com
peting oxazolidine formation, and (6)further develo
pment of the isolation and
purification
protocolfor the ethyl ester,
p-TsOH salt of (
S)-
3. The results andchallenges associated with two cam
paigns in which the
potentialcommercial
process was
practiced are discussed.