4-(5-Phenyl-2-pyridin-2-ylpyrimidin-4-yl)benzaldehyde (4-3; 0.011 g, 0.033 mmol), sodium triacetoxyborohydride (0.010 g, 0.049 mmol) and 2-(3-piperidin-4-yl-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)pyridine hydrochloride (0.022 g, 0.082 mmol) were stirred in 0.5 ml of anhydrous DMF. Triethylamine (0.014 ml, 0.098 mmol) and acetic acid (0.007 ml, 0.13 mmol) were added and the reaction was stirred at ambient temperature for 6 h. The reaction was quenched by the addition of 3 drops of water and the resulting solution was purified by reverse phase preparative chromatography. This afforded 5-phenyl-2-pyridin-2-yl-4-(4-{[4-(5-pyridin-2-yl-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)piperidin-1-yl]methyl}phenyl)pyrimidine (4-4) as a trifluoroacetic acid salt. 1H NMR (CDCl3): δ 9.12 (s, 1H), 9.09 (d, 1H), 8.94 (d, 1H), 8.72 (d, 2H), 8.20 (m, 1H), 8.15 (m, 2H), 7.98 (s, 1H), 7.75 (d, 2H), 7.58 (m, 3H), 7.43 (m, 2H), 7.36 (m, 2H), 4.40 (s, 2H), 3.62 (m, 2H), 3.25 (m, 2H), 2.42 (m, 2H), 2.12 (m, 2H). m/z (m+1): 551.2
