Since Sternbach's discovery of the benzodiazepines there has been enormous effort to optimize as well as to alter the pharmacological profile of these important drug substances3). In this context, a great number of structure modifications has been concerned with the replacement of the "benzo" moiety by heteroaromatic systems, including various N-hetero-cycles4). Despite the continuing interest in pyrido-1,4-diazepines4-'), the corresponding aza-analoguous diazino-annelated systems so far remained largely unexplored.We here report on the preparation of such a novel class of heteroareno-1,4-diazepines in which the seven-membered system is fused to positions 4,5 of a pyridazine nucleus. Previously, we had succeeded in the first synthesis of pyridazine analogues of 2-aminobenzophenone, namely 5-amino-4-pyridazinyl aryl ketones8). The latter bifunctional 1,2-diazine derivatives recently proved to be versatile starting materials in syntheses of various heterocycle-annelated pyridazines'. 9-12); they now were found to permit ready access also to the title pyridazinodiazepines 3a-c. C: X = 2-F a: X = H b: X = 4-C1 Arch. Pharm. (Weinheim) 321,309-310 (1988) 0 VCH Verlagsgesellschajl mbH, 0-6940 Weinheim, I988 0345-6233l88lOSOS-0309 02.SOlO