An efficient route to the acyclic nucleoside analogue famciclovir has been
developed based on a palladium(0) catalysed coupling of 2-amino-6-chloropur
ine and an allylic carbonate sidechain derived from 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxan
-5-one, The reaction proceeds via a highly N-9 regioselective purine allyla
tion step involving a novel palladium mediated N-7 to N-9 rearrangement. (C
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