An orally bioavailable carbapenem CS-834, which is a pivaloyloxymethyl (POM
) ester-type prodrug and has (R)-5-oxopyrrolidin-3-ylthio moiety at the C-2
position of the 1 beta-methylcarbapenem skeleton, is currently under clini
cal trial, We accomplished a short-step synthesis of CS-834 by using phosph
orus ylide from the intramolecular Wittig-type reaction in the key step for
cyclization to the bicyclic carbapenem system. The POM ester group was fou
nd to be suitable for the cyclization conditions.