A mixture of 7-(2-bromophenyl)-1-(3-(thiazol-2-yl)benzyl)azepan-2-one (50 mg; 0.11 mmol), commercially available pyridin-4-ylboronic acid (14 mg; 0.11 mmol), and Pd(PPh3)4 (7 mg; 0.006 mmol) in THF (2 ml), and aq. 2 M Na2CO3 (0.2 ml) was heated to 80° C., under nitrogen, for 24 h. After cooling to rt, water and AcOEt were added. The separated aq. layer was further extracted with AcOEt. The mixed organic layers were washed with brine, dried over anh. MgSO4, filtered, and concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure. Subsequent purification by preparative HPLC afforded 7-(2-(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)-1-(3-(thiazol-2-yl)benzyl)azepan-2-one. LC-MS (conditions A): tR=0.62 min.; [M+H]+: 440.15 g/mol.
