To a mixture of ethyl 9-iodo-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-4,6-methanobenzo[3,4]cyclohepta[1,2-d]imidazole-2-carboxylate (150 mg, 0.38 mmol), potassium carbonate (79 mg, 0.57 mmol) and sodium iodide (114 mg, 0.76 mmol) was introduced a solution of 3-(chloromethyl)-1-methyl-1H-indazole (137 mg, 0.76 mmol) in N,N-dimethylformamide (5 mL). After warming to 50° C. for 2 hr the reaction mixture was evaporated in vacuo. The residue was suspended in ethyl acetate (40 mL), washed with saturated aqueous sodium bicarbonate (15 mL). After washing the basic aqueous extract with ethyl acetate (3×10 ml), all the organic extracts were combined, washed with water (15 mL) and brine (15 mL), and dried over sodium sulfate. Following filtration of the ethyl acetate extract, the filtrate was evaporated onto silica gel in vacuo. The dry-loaded material was purified by silica gel flash column chromatography (eluent: heptanes/ethyl acetate gradient) to furnish the title compound (198 mg, 0.37 mmol, 97%) as a colorless solid: 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3) δ1.48 (t, J=7.2 Hz, 3H), 1.55-1.57 (m, 2H), 2.79 (dq, J=8.2, 2.8 Hz, 2H), 3.53 (td, J=7.9, 3.8 Hz, 1H), 3.73 (td, J=7.6, 4.1 Hz, 1H), 3.99 (s, 3H), 4.50 (q, J=7.2 Hz, 2H), 6.13 (s, 2H), 6.77 (d, J=7.8 Hz, 1H), 7.05 (ddd, J=7.9, 6.3, 1.3 Hz, 1H), 7.32-7.34 (m, 3H), 7.41 (dd, J=7.9, 1.9 Hz, 1H), 8.89 (s, 1H); M+H=539.
