Dasabuvir
(1) is an HCV polymerase inhibitor which
has been developed as a part of a three-component direct-acting antiviral
combination therapy. During the course of the development of the synthetic
route, two novel coupling reactions were developed. First, the copper-catalyzed
coupling of uracil with aryl iodides, employing picolinamide 16 as the ligand, was discovered. Later, the palladium-catalyzed
sulfonamidation of aryl nonaflate 33 was developed, promoted
by electron-rich palladium complexes, including the novel phosphine
ligand, VincePhos (50). This made possible a convergent,
highly efficient synthesis of dasabuvir that significantly reduced
the mutagenic impurity burden of the process.