Development of a scalable process for CI-1034, an endothelin antagonist

A concise, convergent multikilogram synthesis of CI-1034 (1), a potent endothelin receptor antagonist, is described. A 15-step preparation from commercially available o-vanillin and benzenesulfonyl chloride employs a remarkably robust Suzuki coupling between a boronic acid and an aromatic sulfonate ester as the key synthetic step. A scalable route capable of producing multikilogram quantities of CI-1034 with no chromatographic steps is described in this contribution. Improvements to the process included using a 4-fluorobenzenesulfonate ester as a suitable substitute for the triflate group in the Suzuki reaction and the use of MgCl2 as a substitute for TiCl4 in a Dieckmann condensation to provide the benzothiazine dioxide core.