A stirred mixture of 4-hydroxy-alpha-oxobenzeneacetic acid methyl ester (0.724 g) in dimethylformamide (10 mL) under argon was treated with 55% sodium hydride (0.175 g), stirred for 15 minutes and treated with (5-bromopentoxy)benzene (1.4 g). The mixture was heated at 60° C. overnight and worked up as in Example 20. The material from dichloromethane extraction was purified by HPLC (dichloromethane-hexane; 4:1) to provide 0.9 g of analytically pure alpha-oxo-4-[[(5-phenoxy)pentyl]oxy]benzeneacetic acid methyl ester which failed to crystallize.
