Next, to a mixture of 3-(methoxymethoxy)pyridine (2.4 g, 17.4 mmol) and diethyl ether (240 ml), a 1.47 mol/L t-butyllithium n-pentane solution (15 ml, 22.0 mmol) was added dropwise at −70° C. over 15 minutes. After stirring at −70° C. for 1 hour, a diethyl ether solution of 4-(2-benzoyloxyethyl)benzaldehyde (5.35 g, 21.0 mmol) was added over 10 minutes and stirred at −70° C. for 1.5 hours. After warming to room temperature, the reaction mixture was poured into saturated aqueous ammonium chloride and extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic layer was washed with saturated aqueous sodium chloride, dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate and concentrated under reduced pressure. The resulting residue was purified by silica gel column chromatography (hexane:ethyl acetate=20:80) to give [4-(2-benzoyloxyethyl)phenyl]-[3-(methoxymethoxy)pyridin-4-yl]-methanol (2.2 g, 32%) as a yellow powder.
