Novel and efficient access to phenylamino-pyrimidine type protein kinase C inhibitors utilizing a Negishi cross-coupling strategy.

A novel, short, and efficient synthetic pathway to 3-{4-[2-(3-chlorophenylamino)-pyrimidin-4-yl]-pyridin-2-ylamino}-propanol (CGP 60474) and a series of analogues was developed. The synthetic sequence consisted of a Negishi-type cross-coupling reaction in the key step followed by two subsequent nucleophilic substitution reactions. This strategy represents a versatile and robust protocol to access diverse analogues of the title compound for subsequent SAR studies as potential phenylamino-pyrimidine type protein kinase C inhibitors.