Directed reductive amination of β-hydroxy-ketones:: Convergent assembly of the ritonavir/lopinavir core

An efficient procedure for the directed reductive amination of beta-hydroxy-ketones (3) for the stereoselective preparation of 1,3-syn-amino alcohols (6) is reported. The operationally simple protocol uses Ti((OPr)-O-i)(4) for coordination of the intermediate imino alcohol (5) and PMHS as the reducing agent. The method was expanded to an asymmetric aldol reductive amination sequence to allow a highly convergent synthesis of the hydroxy-amine core of the HIV-protease inhibitors ritonavir and lopinavir.