Additives promote Noyori-type reductions of a β-keto-γ-lactam: asymmetric syntheses of serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors.

Serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) pyrrolidinyl ether 2 was synthesized by employing a dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) with enantio- and diastereoselective hydogenation on β-keto-γ-lactam 8 to afford β-hydroxy-γ-lactam 9 with 96% ee and 94% de. Reduction of 9 and purification via the dibenzoyl-(L)-tartaric acid diastereomeric salt 16 enriched the ee and de to 100%. While screening hydrogenation reaction systems with ruthenium-BINAP catalysts to prepare 9, it was found that adding catalytic HCl and LiCl enabled higher yields. In addition, the rate and equilibrium of the DKR-hydrogenation of 8 to give 9 was studied by online NMR and chiral HPLC, which indicated that one of the enantiomers of 8 was reducing faster to 9 than the equilibration of the stereocenter of 8.