Despite
chiral piperidines being a commonly found motif in approved
drugs and drug candidates, the synthesis of these compounds occasionally
suffers from challenges of scalability and stereochemical control.
As part of a medicinal chemistry program, we sought access to a series
of stereochemically pure 3,4-disubstituted piperidines. A classical
ammonium salt resolution was investigated to furnish chiral (S)-1-benzyl-4-bromo-3-methyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine
as a valuable chiral precursor to C-3,4 di-substituted piperidines,
which may have broader utility for other pharmaceutical intermediates.
Specifically, in this work, in support of scale-up efforts for toxicology
studies, we describe a practical synthesis to access kilogram quantities
of enantiopure (S)-1-benzyl-4-bromo-3-methyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine,
utilizing a Shapiro reaction, followed by a classical salt resolution
with an inexpensive chiral acid in high yield and enantioselectivity.