Ethyl bromoacetate → Ethyl 2-(4,6-dimethyl-5-nitropyrimidine-2-yloxy)acetate

Compound 1 (111.86 g) and potassium carbonate (274.21 g: 3 eq.) were suspended in acetone (2 L) and ethyl bromoacetate (165.67 g: 1.5 eq.) was added at room temperature (20 to 30° C.). The equipment used to add ethyl bromoacetate was thoroughly washed with acetone (237 mL) and stirred at 50° C. for 8 hours. Subsequently, the mixture was cooled to 35° C. and was concentrated under reduced pressure. To the resulting residue, toluene (1120 mL) was added and the mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight. The mixture was then suction-filtered and the filtered product was washed with toluene (560 mL). The filtered product was crushed and washed again with toluene (450 mL). The filtrate was evaporated under reduced pressure and the resulting crude product was purified by silica gel column chromatography (hexane:ethyl acetate=1:0 to 4:1) to give 75.98 g (45% yield) of the desired product as a yellow solid.