Syntheses have been realised for several members of a new class of potentia
l bone resorption inhibitors consisting of steroidal oestrogenic compounds
linked at the 17 position to a geminal bia(phosphonic acid) moiety through
an eater linkage. The approach used has the potential to allow other biolog
ically active compounds to be coupled to the geminal bisphosphonate unit. (
C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.