A mixture of 5-bromo-3-[4-(2-hydroxy-ethyl)-phenylamino]-1-methyl-1H-pyrazin-2-one (1) (1.0 g; 3.11 mmol), 4-tert-butyl-N-[2-methyl-3-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-[1,3,2]dioxaborolan-2-yl)-phenyl]-benzamide (1.5 g; 3.57 mmol), tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (560 mg; 0.5 mmol), 1N sodium carbonate (8 mL), and 1,2-dimethoxyethane (40 mL) was heated at 95° C. in a sealed pressure vessel for 16 hr. The mixture was cooled to room temperature, treated with water (70 mL) and extracted with ethyl acetate (3×60 mL). The combined organic extracts were washed with water (2×40 mL) and brine (1×40 mL), dried over solid sodium sulfate, and evaporated under reduced pressure. The resulting residue was chromatographed on silica using methanol/CH2Cl2 (1:9) as eluent to provide 1.2 g of 5-bromo-3-[4-(2-hydroxy-ethyl)-phenylamino]-1-methyl-1H-pyrazin-2-one (2) as a light tan solid. MS 511.23 (M+H).
