The chemical development and scale-up of sampatrilat

The discovery and scale-up of two routes to sampatrilat are described. The first Chemical R and D route used a side product from another development project to accelerate drug supply and expedite the early development programme. The second, more efficient Chemical R and D route had the potential for commercialisation and used an environmentally friendly variant of the Baylis-Hillman reaction, and an asymmetric Michael addition as key steps. Full preparative details for the aminomethacrylate 4, a potentially useful chiral synthon, are given for the first time, along with full experimental details of the asymmetric Michael addition to make the chiral glutarate 5. Finally, a striking polymorph case history is described.