A 2 mL Biotage™ microwave vial was charged with 6-chloro-5-iodo-2-methanesulfonyl-1-(2-trimethylsilanyl-ethoxymethyl)-1H-benzoimidazole (Intermediate 5, 49.0 mg, 0.100 mmol), biphenyl-4-boronic acid (24.0 mg, 0.120 mmol) and Pd(PPh3)4 (5.8 mg, 5 mol %) following by dioxane (1.0 mL) and 1M aqueous K2CO3 (120 uL). The resulting suspension was heated in a microwave synthesizer (Biotage Initiator™) at 150° C. for 10 min. The microwave procedure was repeated two more times, before each irradiation additional Pd(PPh3)4 (2.9 mg, 2.5 mol %) was added. The reaction mixture was then diluted with EtOAc (5 mL), filtered and the resulting solution was evaporated to dryness in vacuo to give brown oil. The oil was dissolved in ACN and passed through a Thiol StratoSphere™ SPE cartridge (Polymer Labs). The solvent was evaporated to dryness in vacuo to give crude product as colorless oil which was used in the next step without further purification. LR-MS (API-ES): calculated C26H29ClN2O3SSi 512.1, observed m/e 513.0 (M+H)+, 485.0, 455.0 (Rt 3.91 min).
