A reaction mixture of 4-(adamantan-1-ylmethoxy)-3-bromobenzonitrile (1.04 g, 3.00 mmol), potassium carbonate (1.00 g, 7.20 mmol) and (2-methoxypyridin-3-yl)boronic acid (0.92 g, 6.00 mmol) in dioxane (30 mL) was degassed three times with nitrogen, then tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) (0.18 g, 0.15 mmol) was added and the reaction mixture was degassed three further times with nitrogen. The resulting mixture was heated at 90° C. for 19 h, and then the reaction was cooled to ambient temperature, (2-methoxypyridin-3-yr)boronic acid (0.46 g, 3.00 mmol) and tetrakis(triphenylphosphfne)-pailadium(0) (0.09 g, 0.08 mmol) were added and the reaction was degassed three times with nitrogen and heated at 90° C. for further 7 h. After cooling to ambient temperature, the reaction mixture was diluted with ethyl acetate (200 mL) and washed with water and brine; dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated in vacuo. Purification of the residue by column chromatography (15% ethyl acetate in hexanes) afforded the title compound as a colorless solid (1.11 g, 98%): 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ 8.20-8.16 (m, 1H), 7.62-7.48 (m, 3H), 6.96-6.91 (m, 2H), 3.87 (s, 3H), 3.48 (s, 2H), 1.89 (br s, 3H), 1.68-1.35 (m, 12H); MS (ES+) m/z: 375.2, (M+1).
