Ir/SpiroPAP Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of a Key Intermediate of Montelukast: Process Development and Potential Impurities Study

Enantioselective Transformations in the Synthesis of Therapeutic Agents

The proportion of approved chiral drugs and drug candidates under medical studies has surged dramatically over the past two decades. As a consequence, the efficient synthesis of enantiopure pharmaceuticals or their synthetic intermediates poses a profound challenge to medicinal and process chemists. The significant advancement in asymmetric catalysis has provided an effective and reliable solution to this challenge. The successful application of transition metal catalysis, organocatalysis, and biocatalysis to the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries has promoted drug discovery by efficient and precise preparation of enantio-enriched therapeutic agents, and facilitated the industrial production of active pharmaceutical ingredient in an economic and environmentally friendly fashion. The present review summarizes the most recent applications (2008-2022) of asymmetric catalysis in the pharmaceutical industry ranging from process scales to pilot and industrial levels. It also showcases the latest achievements and trends in the asymmetric synthesis of therapeutic agents with state of the art technologies of asymmetric catalysis.

Highly Efficient Asymmetric Hydrogenation Catalyzed by Iridium Complexes with Tridentate Chiral Spiro Aminophosphine Ligands

ConspectusCatalytic asymmetric hydrogenation is one of the most reliable, powerful, and environmentally benign methods for the synthesis of chiral molecules with high atom economy and has been successfully applied in the industrial production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and fragrances. The key to achieving highly efficient and highly enantioselective hydrogenation reactions is the design and synthesis of chiral catalysts.Our recent studies involving iridium complexes of bidentate chiral spiro aminophosphine ligands (Ir-SpiroAP) have revealed that adding another coordinating group on the nitrogen atom to form a tridentate ligand can provide catalysts with markedly higher stability, enantioselectivity, and efficiency. Specifically, chiral Ir-SpiroAP catalysts bearing an added pyridine group (designated Ir-SpiroPAP) exhibit high activity and excellent enantioselectivity in the asymmetric hydrogenation of a wide range of carbonyl compounds, including aryl ketones, β- and δ-ketoesters, α,β-unsaturated ketones and esters, and racemic α-substituted lactones, as well as highly electron-deficient alkenes such as α,β-unsaturated malonates and analogues. The efficiency of the Ir-SpiroPAP catalysts is extremely high: in the hydrogenation of aryl ketones, turnover numbers reach 4.5 million, which is the highest value reported to date for a molecular catalyst. Moreover, when a thioether or a bulky triarylphosphine group is added to afford tridentate ligands designated SpiroSAP and SpiroPNP, respectively, the resulting iridium catalysts show high efficiency and enantioselectivity for asymmetric hydrogenation of β-alkyl-β-ketoesters and dialkyl ketones, which are challenging substrates. Furthermore, chiral spiro catalysts containing an added oxazoline moiety (Ir-SpiroOAP) show high enantioselectivity for asymmetric hydrogenation of α-keto amides and racemic α-aryloxy lactones. The above-described catalysts have been used for enantioselective synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals and other bioactive compounds.We have shown that chiral spiro ligands that combine a rigid skeleton with tridentate coordination stabilize iridium catalysts. The careful tailoring of the substituents on the ligand creates a chiral environment around the active metal center of the catalyst that can precisely discriminate between the two faces of a substrate carbonyl group. These factors are key for controlling the activity, enantioselectivity, and turnover numbers of asymmetric hydrogenation catalysts. We expect that catalysts based on iridium, and other transition metals, coordinated by tridentate chiral ligands with a rigid skeleton will find more applications in asymmetric hydrogenation and other asymmetric transformations.

Rhodium(I)-catalyzed C-S bond formation via enantioselective carbenoid S-H insertion: catalytic asymmetric synthesis of α-thioesters

Asymmetric construction of C-S bond through transition-metal catalysis is a challenging subject. By using chiral diene as ligand, we have developed the first rhodium(I)-catalyzed asymmetric carbene insertion approach for C-S...

Chiral Tridentate Ligands in Transition Metal-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation

Asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) of double bonds has been one of the most effective methods for the preparation of chiral molecules and for the synthesis of important chiral building blocks. In the past 60 years, noble metals with bidentate ligands have shown marvelous reactivity and enantioselectivity in asymmetric hydrogenation of a series of prochiral substrates. In recent years, developing chiral tridentate ligands has played an increasingly important role in AH. With modular frameworks and a variety of functionalities on the side arms, chiral tridentate ligand complexes enable both reactivities and stereoselectivities. Although great achievements have been made for noble metal catalysts with chiral tridentate ligands since the 1990s, the design of chiral tridentate ligands for earth abundant metal catalysts has still been in high demand. This review summarizes the development of chiral tridentate ligands for homogeneous asymmetric hydrogenation. The philosophy of ligand design and the reaction mechanisms are highlighted and discussed as well.

Iridium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenation of γ- and δ-Ketoacids for Enantioselective Synthesis of γ- and δ-Lactones

A highly efficient asymmetric hydrogenation of γ- and δ-ketoacids was developed by using a chiral spiro iridium catalyst (S)-1a, affording the optically active γ- and δ-hydroxy acids/lactones in high yields with excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99% ee) and turnover numbers (TON up to 100000). This protocol provides an efficient and practical method for enantioselective synthesis of Ezetimibe.

One-pot synthesis of polyfunctionalized quinolines via a copper-catalyzed tandem cyclization

An efficient one-pot approach for the synthesis of polyfunctionalized quinolines was developed via a sequence of copper-catalyzed coupling reaction/propargyl-allenyl isomerization/aza-electrocyclization. Easily available starting materials, mild conditions, and a wide substrate scope make this approach potentially useful.