Selective and Practical Synthesis of Penciclovir

Abstract

A selective and practical method has been developed for the synthesis of penciclovir (1) in gram quantities involving a highly N ⁹ selective alykylation of 2-amino-6-chloropurine (9) with 2-(2-phenyl-1,3-dioxane-5-yl)ethanol (12) as a key step.