Safe and Efficient Continuous-Flow Synthesis and Batchwise Hydrolysis of Ethyl 5-Acetyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylate: A Key Synthon of Darolutamide

Abstract

A safe and metal-free process using ethyl glycinate hydrochloride as the starting material has been developed for the preparation of ethyl 5-acetyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylate, a key intermediate for the synthesis of potential blockbuster drug substance darolutamide. In the key step, the toxic and explosive intermediate, ethyl diazoacetate was generated and used in situ. Reaction parameters were optimized for both the batchwise and the continuous-flow variant of the synthesis. In the next step, alkaline hydrolysis of the ester led to 5-acetyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid, which can not only be used as a darolutamide intermediate, but it can also be considered as a valuable building block for other types of organic and medicinal chemistry transformations.

Points of Interest in the Chemistry of the Levomepromazine Drug Substance: Recycling of Undesired Enantiomer, Identification of New Phenothiazine Dimers, Synthesis of a Pharmacopeial Impurity, and an Unexpected Rearrangement

“…In continuation of our efforts aiming at the technological − and analytical , development of drug substance manufacturing processes, we also tried to achieve economical improvements in the synthetic procedure leading to levomepromazine [( R )- 1 ]. In order to obtain recovered 2-methoxyphenothiazine ( 2 ) in a reasonable yield and required purity, we aimed to transform the one-pot procedure (see above, Scheme ) into an easily scalable process by isolating and purifying certain intermediates.…”