Marcus Baumann

An overview of the synthetic routes to the best selling drugs containing 6-membered heterocycles.

Summary This review which is the second in this series summarises the most common synthetic routes as applied to the preparation of many modern pharmaceutical compounds categorised as containing a six-membered heterocyclic ring. The reported examples are based on the top retailing drug molecules combining synthetic information from both scientific journals and the wider patent literature. It is hoped that this compilation, in combination with the previously published review on five-membered rings, will form a comprehensive foundation and reference source for individuals interested in medicinal, synthetic and preparative chemistry.

An overview of the key routes to the best selling 5-membered ring heterocyclic pharmaceuticals

Summary This review presents a comprehensive overview on selected synthetic routes towards commercial drug compounds as published in both journal and patent literature. Owing to the vast number of potential structures, we have concentrated only on those drugs containing five-membered heterocycles and focused principally on the assembly of the heterocyclic core. In order to target the most representative chemical entities the examples discussed have been selected from the top 200 best selling drugs of recent years.

KMnO4-Mediated Oxidation as a Continuous Flow Process

An efficient and easily scalable transformation of alcohols and aldehydes to carboxylic acids and nitroalkane derivatives to the corresponding carbonyls and carboxylic acids using permanganate as the oxidant within a continuous flow reactor is reported. Notably, the generation and downstream processing of MnO(2) slurries was not found to cause any blocking of the reactor when ultrasound pulses were applied to the flow system.

The flow synthesis of heterocycles for natural product and medicinal chemistry applications

This article represents an overview of recent research from the Innovative Technology Centre in the field of flow chemistry which was presented at the FROST2 meeting in Budapest in October 2009. After a short introduction of this rapidly expanding field, we discuss some of our results with a main focus on the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds which we use in various natural product and medicinal chemistry programmes.

The synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) using continuous flow chemistry

Summary The implementation of continuous flow processing as a key enabling technology has transformed the way we conduct chemistry and has expanded our synthetic capabilities. As a result many new preparative routes have been designed towards commercially relevant drug compounds achieving more efficient and reproducible manufacture. This review article aims to illustrate the holistic systems approach and diverse applications of flow chemistry to the preparation of pharmaceutically active molecules, demonstrating the value of this strategy towards every aspect ranging from synthesis, in-line analysis and purification to final formulation and tableting. Although this review will primarily concentrate on large scale continuous processing, additional selected syntheses using micro or meso-scaled flow reactors will be exemplified for key transformations and process control. It is hoped that the reader will gain an appreciation of the innovative technology and transformational nature that flow chemistry can leverage to an overall process.

A modular flow reactor for performing Curtius rearrangements as a continuous flow process

The use of a mesofluidic flow reactor is described for performing Curtius rearrangement reactions of carboxylic acids in the presence of diphenylphosphoryl azide and trapping of the intermediate isocyanates with various nucleophiles.

A new enabling technology for convenient laboratory scale continuous flow processing at low temperatures

A new machine for conducting continuous flow processes at low temperatures on a laboratory scale is reported. The use of this cryogenic flow reactor has been demonstrated by the preparation of a variety of (hetero)aromatic boronic acids and esters via lithium halogen exchange chemistry. Furthermore, scale-up of the reaction conditions not only demonstrates the application of this device for the preparation of useful building blocks but also combines the ability to process n-butyllithium directly through pump heads attached to the unit.

Azide monoliths as convenient flow reactors for efficient Curtius rearrangement reactions

The preparation and use of an azide-containing monolithic reactor is described for use in a flow chemistry device and in particular for conducting Curtius rearrangement reactions via acid chloride inputs.

Synthesis of a Drug-Like Focused Library of Trisubstituted Pyrrolidines Using Integrated Flow Chemistry and Batch Methods

A combination of flow and batch chemistries has been successfully applied to the assembly of a series of trisubstituted drug-like pyrrolidines. This study demonstrates the efficient preparation of a focused library of these pharmaceutically important structures using microreactor technologies, as well as classical parallel synthesis techniques, and thus exemplifies the impact of integrating innovative enabling tools within the drug discovery process.

Batch and Flow Synthesis of Pyrrolo[1,2-a]-quinolines via an Allene-Based Reaction Cascade.

An efficient reaction cascade delivering a series of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinolines bearing phosphonate or phosphine oxide moieties is presented. This sequence exploits the in situ transformation of propargylic alcohols into transient allenes by means of a strategic [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement followed by trapping of the resulting allenes by an adjacent pyrrole ring. Furthermore, the initial small scale batch process was successfully translated into a continuous flow process allowing efficient preparation of selected pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinolines on multigram scale without any safety concerns due to the reactions inherent exothermic profile.