Practical and Asymmetric Synthesis of Apremilast Using Ellman’s Sulfinamide as a Chiral Auxiliary

Herein, we described a new protocol for the asymmetric synthesis of apremilast using tert-butanesulfinamide as a chiral auxiliary. This synthetic route consisted of four steps starting from the commercially available 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde, and apremilast was accordingly obtained in an overall 56% yield and with 95.5% ee.