Nirmatrelvir, the novel antiviral component of Pfizer’s orally available combination therapy Paxlovid, used to treat COVID-19, presents a significant synthetic challenge. Herein, we report process optimization insights that could enable a scalable and cost-effective manufacturing process to make nirmatrelvir. The disclosed development opens up a path to three new complete routes, offering options to eliminate some of the major cost-drivers for nirmatrelvir and deliver the final API in higher yield and lower overall cost while maintaining quality requirements.

MMV693183 is a promising antimalarial drug candidate that works for uncomplicated malaria treatment and resistance management. Herein, we report an efficient and highly regioselective synthesis of MMV693183. This efficient approach to MMV693183 is only three steps from readily available starting materials and provides the API in 46 % overall yield without requiring protecting groups.

Bedaquiline (BDQ) is an important drug for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a worldwide disease that causes more than 1.6 million deaths yearly. The current synthetic strategy adopted by the manufacturers to assemble this molecule relies on a nucleophilic addition reaction of two complex starting materials, but suffers from low conversion and no stereoselectivity, which subsequently increases the cost of manufacturing BDQ. M4ALL has developed a new approach to this process that not only allows high conversion of starting materials, but also results in good diastereo- and enantioselectivity towards the desired BDQ stereoisomer. A variety of chiral lithium amides derived from amino acids were studied, and it was found that lithium (R)-2-(methoxymethyl)pyrrolidide, obtained from D-proline, results in high assay yield of the syn-diastereomer pair (82 %) and with considerable stereocontrol (d.r. = 13.6:1, e.r. = 3.6:1, 56 % ee) providing bedaquiline in up to 64 % assay yield before purification steps towards the final API. This represents a considerable improvement in the BDQ yield compared to previously reported conditions and could be critical to further lowering the cost of this life-saving drug.