Multikilogram Synthesis of a Potent Dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL Antagonist. 1. Manufacture of the Acid Moiety and Development of Some Key Reactions

Recent Applications of Pd-Catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura and Buchwald–Hartwig Couplings in Pharmaceutical Process Chemistry

Cross-coupling reactions have changed the way complex molecules are synthesized. In particular, Suzuki–Miyaura and Buchwald–Hartwig amination reactions have given opportunities to elegantly make pharmaceutical ingredients. Indeed, these reactions are at the forefront of both the stages of drug development, medicinal chemistry, and process chemistry. On the one hand, these reactions have given medicinal chemists a resource to derivatize the core compound to arrive at scaffold rapidly. On the other hand, these cross couplings have offered the process chemists a smart tool to synthesize the development candidates safely, quickly, and efficiently. Generally, the application of cross-coupling reactions is broad. This review will specifically focus on their real (pharma) world applications in large-scale synthesis appearing in the last three years.

Enantioselective Synthesis of 2-Functionalized Tetrahydroquinolines through Biomimetic Reduction

Biomimetic asymmetric reduction of 2-functionalized quinolines has been successfully developed with the chiral and regenerable NAD(P)H model CYNAM in the presence of transfer catalyst simple achiral phosphoric acids, providing the chiral 2-functionalized tetrahydroquinolines with up to 99% ee. Using this methodology as a key step, a chiral and potent opioid analgesic containing a 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline motif was synthesized with high overall yield.

Impact of Cross-Coupling Reactions in Drug Discovery and Development

Cross-coupling reactions have played a critical role enabling the rapid expansion of structure-activity relationships (SAR) during the drug discovery phase to identify a clinical candidate and facilitate subsequent drug development processes. The reliability and flexibility of this methodology have attracted great interest in the pharmaceutical industry, becoming one of the most used approaches from Lead Generation to Lead Optimization. In this mini-review, we present an overview of cross-coupling reaction applications to medicinal chemistry efforts, in particular the Suzuki-Miyaura and Buchwald-Hartwig cross-coupling reactions as a remarkable resource for the generation of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. To further appreciate the impact of this methodology, the authors discuss some recent examples of clinical candidates that utilize key cross-coupling reactions in their large-scale synthetic process. Looking into future opportunities, the authors highlight the versatility of the cross-coupling reactions towards new chemical modalities like DNA-encoded libraries (DELs), new generation of peptides and cyclopeptides, allosteric modulators, and proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) approaches.