Synthesis Of The Lipophilic Amine Tail Of Abediterol Enabled By Multiphase Flow Transformations

The development of a continuous-flow sequence for the synthesis of an important drug candidate precursor is reported. Abediterol is a beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonist that has undergone phase IIa clinical trials for the treatment of respiratory disease. A flow sequence is developed for the preparation of the lipophilic amine tail portion of abediterol. The sequence comprises of a phase-transfer-catalyzed liquid/liquid O-alkylation, a rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation, and a ruthenium-catalyzed reductive amination. The reactions were optimized separately within continuous-flow environments to identify important parameter effects. The strongly basic O-alkylation operates with greater than 90% conversion within a 23 min residence time. The hydroformylation uses 1 mol % Rh(acac)(CO)(2) (acac = acetylacetone) as a catalyst and 6 mol % Xantphos as a ligand with 1.1 equiv of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The optimized O-alkylation and hydroformylation telescoped flow process was successfully operated over 6 h. The protocol is shown to be high yielding for the desired linear aldehyde (75% gas chromatography yield, similar to 2.5 g/h). The sequence requires a solvent switch prior to the reductive amination. The final step is a high-pressure (40 bar) and high-temperature (150 degrees C) Ru-catalyzed reductive amination using ammonia and hydrogen to afford the amine tail. The solution yield for the formation of the amine tail was 78%. The yield of the reductive amination with an unoptimized isolation was 50%, resulting in an overall isolated yield for the three-step sequence of 38%. This compares favorably against the batch yield of 26% using a different synthetic route.