A suspension of N-[3-(3-fluoro-4-iodo-phenyl)-2-oxo-oxazolidin-5-ylmethyl]-acetamide 50 (14.0 g, 37 mmol) in toluene (120 mL) was treated with 4-(hydroxymethyl) phenylboronic acid (7.87 g, 51.8 mmol, 1.4 equiv), potassium carbonate (K2CO3, 15.32 g, 111 mmol, 3.0 equiv), ethanol (EtOH, 40 mL), and H2O (40 mL) at 25° C., and the resulting mixture was degassed three times under a steady stream of argon at 25° C. Tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (Pd(PPh3)4, 2.14 g, 1.85 mmol, 0.05 equiv) was subsequently added to the reaction mixture, and the resulting reaction mixture was degassed three times again before being warmed to gentle reflux for 6 h. When thin layer chromatography (TLC) and HPLC showed the coupling reaction was complete, the reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature before being treated with H2O (240 mL). The resulting mixture was then stirred at room temperature for 10 min before being cooled to 0-5° C. for 1 h. The solid precipitates were collected by filtration, washed with H2O (2×100 mL) and 20% ethyl acetate (EtOAc)/hexane (2×50 mL), and dried in vacuo. The crude desired N-[3-(2-Fluoro-4′-hydroxymethyl-biphenyl-4-yl)-2-oxo-oxazolidin-5-ylmethyl]-acetamide 51 (12.50 g, 94% yield) was obtained as off-white solids. This material was found to be essentially pure by HPLC and 1H NMR and was directly used in the subsequent reaction without further purification. 1H NMR (300 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 1.76 (s, 3H, COCH3), 3.35 (t, 2H, J=5.4 Hz), 3.69 (dd, 1H, J=6.4, 9.2 Hz), 4.08 (t, 1H, J=9.1 Hz), 4.46 (d, 2H, J=5.7 Hz, CH2OH), 4.68 (m, 1H), 5.16 (t, 1H, J=5.7 Hz, OH), 7.25-7.52 (m, 7H, aromatic-H), 8.18 (t, 1H, J=5.8 Hz, NHCOCH3). LCMS (ESI) m/e 359 (M+H)+.
