A round bottom flask with a stir bar and argon inlet was charged with tetrahydrofuran (10 mL) and cooled to −78° C. Diisopropyl amine (155 μL, 1.10 mmol) was then added followed by the dropwise addition of a solution of n-butyl lithium (2.5M solution in hexanes, 422 μL, 1.06 mmol) and it was stirred at −78° C. for 15 min. After this time, a solution of (2,3-dihydro-benzo[b]thiophen-5-yl)-acetic acid methyl ester (200 mg, 0.96 mmol) in tetrahydrofuran (3 mL) and 2,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(1H)-pyrimidinone (0.5 mL) was added dropwise. It was then stirred for 1 h at −78° C. It was then treated with a solution of iodomethylcyclopentane (prepared in PCT WO2004/052869 A1 Example 1, 302 mg, 1.44 mmol) in 2,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(1H)-pyrimidinone (0.5 mL) dropwise. The reaction was then stirred at −78° C. and gradually allowed to warm to 25° C. and stirred at 25° C. for 16 h. The reaction was then diluted with a saturated aqueous ammonium chloride solution (30 mL). The aqueous layer was and extracted with ethyl acetate (3×20 mL). The organics were then dried over magnesium sulfate, filtered and concentrated in vacuo. Purification on an AnaLogix Intelliflash system (12 g column, 2% ethyl acetate/hexanes) afforded 3-cyclopentyl-2-(2,3-dihydro-benzo[b]thiophen-5-yl)-propionic acid methyl ester (193 mg, 69).
