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Afatinib is a 4-anilinoquinazoline tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in the form of a dimaleate salt which is indicated for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The most scalable route for the synthesis of this drug was reported in two Boehringer Ingelheim patents, in which the title compound, 4,7-dichloro-6-nitroquinazoline (<b>IV</b>), is an important intermediate. Compound <b>IV</b> is also present in a number of synthetic pathways for various 4,7-disubstituted quinazoline derivatives displaying high therapeutic potential. However, no detailed characterization of this popular compound has been reported, possibly due to its high instability. In this paper, <b>IV</b> was prepared in an overall yield of 56.1% by a 3-step process (condensation, nitration, and chlorination) from 2-amino-4-chlorobenzoic acid (<b>I</b>). The target compound has been for the first time fully characterized by melting point, mass-spectrometry, FT-IR, ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopies.