A solution of [4-(3-bromomethyl-5-tert-butyl-4-isopropoxy-2-methyl-phenylethynyl)-phenyl]-acetic acid methyl ester (Intermediate 148, 0.12 g, 0.25 mmol) in triethyl amine (1 mL) and N,N-dimethylformamide (4 mL) was sparged with argon and treated with trimethylsilylacetylene (0.5 mL, 3.5 mmol) and dichlorobis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(II) (0.025 g, 0.036 mmol). The resulting reaction mixture was heated at 85° C. overnight at the end of which it was cooled to ambient temperature and subjected to flash column chromatography over silica gel (230-400 mesh) using 4% ethyl acetate in hexane as the eluent followed by preparative normal phase HPLC using 3% ethyl acetate in hexane as the mobile phase to afford the title compound as an oil (0.038 g, 31%).
