The development of a reproducible
process for multihundred gram
production of (Z)-5-((1-(4-chloro-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl)-1H-indazol-5-yl)methylene)-3-((3R,4R)-3-fluoro-1-methylpiperidin-4-yl)thiazolidine-2,4-dione
(26), a potent and selective inhibitor of estrogen-related
receptor 1 (ERR1), is described. This multihundred gram synthesis
was achieved via magnesium perchlorate-catalyzed regioselective epoxide
ring-opening of tert-butyl 7-oxa-3-azabicyclo[4.1.0]heptane-3-carboxylate
(9) with thiazolidine-2,4-dione (6, TZD)
to form a diastereomeric mixture tert-butyl 4-(2,4-dioxothiazolidin-3-yl)-3-hydroxypiperidine-1-carboxylate
(17), of which the 3-hydroxyl group was functionally
transformed to 3-fluoro derivative 19 after treatment
with Deoxo-Fluor. Chiral separation of 19 provided the
desired diastereomer (3R,4R)-21 that was converted to the secondary amine 23 TFA salt. Reductive amination of 23 produced the key
intermediate N-methyl 24. Knoevenagel
condensation of 24 with 1-(4-chloro-2-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl)-1H-indazole-5-carbaldehyde (5) produced the
final product 26 in 10% overall yield (99.7% HPLC area%
with ≥99.5% de) after a convergent eight synthetic steps with
the only column purification being the chiral HPLC separation of 3R,4R-21 from 3S,4S-22.