A variety of ethyl 1-substituted 2-aryl-5-ethoxy-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-4-carboxylates were synthesized by efficient thermal or microwave-promoted Suzuki coupling of 2-chloro-N1-substituted precursors.A recent research project revealed 1-substituted 2-aryl-5-hydroxy-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-4-carboxylic acids (pyrimidones, 1) as a novel class of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitors 1,2 (Figure 1). Figure 1 1-Substituted 2-aryl-5-hydroxy-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-4-carboxylic acids 1For a rapid exploration of the SAR (structure-activity relationship) in the series, we were targeting an efficient methodology to insert aryl groups in position 2 of the pyrimidone in the presence of different groups on the N1 nitrogen. The remaining substitution pattern of the pyrimidone scaffold, which has been shown to be essential for biological activity, 1,2 was kept fixed. The route typically used 1 for the synthesis of the pyrimidone scaffold was not very efficient for a combined SAR in positions 1 and 2, since the aryl group was introduced early in the synthesis from the amidoxime 2 (Scheme 1) and the alkylation of N1 nitrogen proceeded with low selectivity for the desired N-alkylated product, being furthermore limited to the more reactive electrophiles, and hence to a small number of substituents.Carbon-carbon bond formation in position 2 of the pyrimidone scaffold having the appropriate N1 substituent already in place was an attractive route for our purposes. From a survey of the literature it was found that carboncarbon bond formation on 2-halopyrimidines via transition-metal-catalyzed 3 cross-coupling reactions is well documented. The analogous reaction on N1-substituted pyrimidones has very little precedent 4 despite the interest in this class of compounds related to their wide range of biological activities 5 .Herein we report the Suzuki cross-coupling of densely functionalized ethyl 1-substituted 2-chloro-5-ethoxy-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidine-4-carboxylates with a variety of boronic acids. For an easy access to the desired target structures, it is mandatory that the N1-substituted pyrimidones are readily accessible. Sochilin 6 and co-workers had described the synthesis of pyrimidone 5a. We applied their methodology to access 2-chloropyrimidone 3a, as well as the benzyl and phenyl analogues 3b and 3c, which we needed to explore the scope and limitations of the methodology.All three compounds were accessible in multigram quantities by the four-step route shown in Scheme 2. Condensation of commercially available N-substituted ureas with diethyl 2-ethoxy-3-oxosuccinate 6,7 afforded hydantoins 4a-c which underwent a base-promoted ring expansion to the corresponding 2-hydroxypyrimidones 5a-c. Esterification and reaction with phosphorous oxychloride afforded the chlorides 3a-c which were obtained pure with only one column chromatographic purification after the last step.