Abstract
An efficient and reproducible synthesis of orally active 2-tetrahydrofuranylthio-1β-methylcarbapenem 16 (OCA-983) via the Wittig process was developed. The intramolecular reductive cyclization of the thioester-oxalimide 13 with triethyl phosphite to the 2-tetrahydrofuranylthio-1β-methylcarbapenem 14 was carried out in two steps in order to obtain a reproducible yield.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Drs. S. A. Lang and T. Mansour for their support and helpful discussion.