A mixture of tert-butyl 5,6-dibromo-2,4-difluoronicotinate (156 mg, 0.42 mmol), 1-methyl-1H-indol-5-ylboronic acid (80 mg, 0.46 mmol), PdCl2dppf (34 mg, 0.042 mmol), aqueous K2CO3 (2.0 M×0.6 mL, 1.2 mmol) in acetonitrile (1.8 mL) was stirred at 50° C. overnight. The mixture was cooled and extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic layers were combined and dried over sodium sulfate, then evaporated and purified by silica chromatography (0-5% ethyl acetate in hexanes) to give tert-butyl 5-bromo-2,4-difluoro-6-(1-methyl-1H-indol-5-yl)nicotinate (128 mg, 73%).
