Isolation of highly pure erlotinib hydrochloride by recrystallization after nucleophilic substitution of an impurity with piperazine

Optimized synthesis and purification of erlotinib hydrochloride (N-(3-ethynylphenyl)-6,7-bis(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazoline-4-amine hydrochloride) were studied. Highly polar piperazine was used in a nucleophilic substitution reaction with the chlorinated intermediate byproduct N-(3-ethynylphenyl)-6(2-chloroethoxy)-7-(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazolin-4-amine hydrochloride. As a result, N-(3-ethynylphenyl)-6(2-chloroethoxy)-7-(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazolin-4-amine hydrochloride was completely transformed to N-(3-ethynylphenyl)-6(2-piperzinoethoxy)-7-(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazolin-4-amine hydrochloride. The polarity of N-(3-ethynylphenyl)-6(2-piperzinoethoxy)-7-(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazolin-4-amine hydrochloride was changed, and its molecule was enlarged. It was easy to remove this larger, more polar, compound by recrystallization. Highly pure erlotinib hydrochloride was obtained with low impurity content (<1 %). The purity of erlotinib hydrochloride was >99.9 %.