FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of processes for the synthesis of active ingredients for pharmaceutical use, and in particular to a process for the industrial-scale preparation of 3P-hydroxy-17-(lH-benzimidazol-l-yl)androsta-5,16-diene, also known as Galeterone, a compound useful for the treatment of prostate cancer, having the following formula:

PRIOR ART

Galeterone, 3P-hydroxy-17-(lH-benzimidazol-l-yl)androsta-5,16-diene was first described in the article "Three dimensional pharmacophore modeling of human CYP17 inhibitors. Potential agents for prostate cancer therapy", O. Omoshile et ah, J. Med. Chem. 2003, 46 (12), pages 2345-2351, in figure 1 on page 2347, with the abbreviation VN/124- 1*. The article does not report an experimental description of the preparation of the molecules object of the text, among which Galeterone, but refers to several other publications for the synthesis thereof.

Among the publications cited in the article by Omoshile et ah, a significant one is "Novel 17-azolyl steroids, potent inhibitors of human cytochrome 17a-Hydroxylase-Ci7,2o- lyase (P450 _17a ): potential agents for the treatment of prostate cancer", V. C. O. Njar et ah, J. Med. Chem., 1998, 41 (6), pages 902-912, which describes the sequence of reactions that, explicitly recalled and described in J. Med. Chem. 2005, 48, 2972-2984, leads to obtaining Galeterone.

The first synthetic step is described in "Novel C-17-Heteroaryl steroidal CYP17 inhibitors/antiandrogens: synthesis, in vitro biological activity, pharmacokinetics, and antitumor activity in the LAPC4 human prostate cancer xenograft model", V. D. Handratta et al., J. Med. Chem., 2005, 48 (8), pages 2972-2984. This synthetic step consists of a Vilsmeier-Haack reaction which uses as a starting material 3P-acetoxyandrosta-5-en-17-one (1) to yield 3P-acetoxy-17-chloroandrosta-5,16-diene (2) and 3P-acetoxy-17-chloro-16- formylandrosta-5,16-diene (3), as shown in the following scheme:

(1 ) (3) (2)

Only intermediate (3), 77% of the reaction yield, is useful for the subsequent reactions while compound (2), 11.4% of the reaction yield, must be discarded.

In the above article by Njar et al., the separation of the two reaction products is obtained by flash chromatography (FCC) on silica gel.

The synthesis described in the article by Handratta et al. starts from compound (3) prepared as described above; compound (3) is reacted with benzimidazole, thus yielding the intermediate 3 β-acetoxy- 17-( lH-benzimidazol- 1 -yl)- 16-formylandrosta-5, 16-diene (4) :

(3) (4)

The purification of intermediate (4) is obtained by flash chromatography (FCC) on silica gel.

Intermediate (4) is then thermally deformylated using 10% palladium on carbon (Pd/C) as catalyst in an amount equal to 50% of the weight of intermediate (4):

(4) (5)

The purification of intermediate (5) is obtained by flash chromatography (FCC) on silica gel.

Finally, intermediate (5) is deacetylated in bases and the crude Galeterone (6) is crystallized from the ethyl acetate/methanol mixture:

(5) (6)

As with the reactions above, no quality data (titer and HPLC purity) are provided in the experimental descriptions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a synthesis route for the preparation of Galeterone that is simpler than the prior art processes and easily industrially applicable.

This object is achieved by means of the present invention that, in a first aspect thereof, relates to a process for the preparation of Galeterone (6) comprising the reaction between 17-iodoandrosta-5,16-dien-3P-ol (I) and benzimidazole to yield 3P-hydroxy-17-(lH- benzimidazol-l-yl)androsta-5,16-diene (6) (Galeterone):

In a second aspect thereof, the invention relates to separation by filtration from the reaction mixture of the compound obtainable by reaction of Galeterone with a physiologically acceptable organic or inorganic acid, this compound being useful for the purification of the desired product.

Preferably, the Galeterone di-oxalate is separated by filtration.

In a third aspect, the invention relates to salts obtained by reaction with Galeterone, which are employed for the purification thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the results of HPLC analysis of products obtained according to the process of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In a first aspect thereof, the invention relates to a synthesis process of Galeterone (6) that is industrially applicable, comprising the steps described in detail hereinafter.

In the present description and in the claims, in the event of a discrepancy between the chemical name of a compound and the formula given for the same, the latter must be regarded as correct.

The step object of the invention consists in the reaction between 17-iodoandrosta-5,16- dien-3P-ol (I) and benzimidazole in the presence of a base, of 8-hydroxyquinoline and cuprous iodide as catalysts to yield 3P-hydroxy-17-(lH-benzimidazol-l-yl)androsta-5,16- diene (6) also known as Galeterone:

Compound (I), 17-iodoandrosta-5,16-dien-3P-ol, is a compound already known literature as an intermediate useful for the synthesis of Abiraterone acetate (II).

no

The preparation of compound (I) 17-iodoandrosta-5,16-dien-3P-ol is described in Organic Preparations and Procedures Int., 29(1), 123-134 (1997) within the description of the synthesis of Abiraterone acetate.

The reaction object of the present invention is carried out in a single organic solvent in the presence of benzimidazole, a base, cuprous iodide (Cul) and 8-hydroxyquinoline (organic ligand). In cuprous iodide, copper is present in oxidation state +1, and the compound is normally indicated in the literature with the notation copper (I) iodide, wherein (I) indicates said oxidation state; in the present text and in the claims, only the name "cuprous iodide" or the formula Cul will be adopted to avoid confusion with compound (I), reagent in the reaction of the invention.

The organic solvent is selected among dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylacetamide (DMA), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and l,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(lH)- pirimidinone (DMPU), and is employed in an amount between 5 and 20 times by volume, measured in ml, with respect to the weight in g of compound (I) loaded in the reaction (concentration (v/w).

The preferred solvent is dimethylformamide, and it is preferably used in a volume of between 5 and 10 times the weight (v/w) of compound (I).

The reaction temperature is of between 130 °C and 200 °C.

A reaction test carried out with microwave reactor maintaining the reaction mixture at 200 °C for 1 h showed no degradation of the starting compound (I) or of the resulting Galeterone (6).

Preferably, the reaction temperature is between 140 °C and the boiling temperature of the reaction mixture as obtained after the addition of all components.

The reaction time is between 12 and 48 hours, preferably between 14 and 24 hours. As organic ligand, 8-hydroxyquinoline, 2-hydroxyquinoline, 3-hydroxyquinoline, 4- hydroxyquinoline and 6-hydroxyquinoline were tested. The formation of Galeterone is observed only by employing 8-hydroxyquinoline.

8-hydroxyquinoline is used in an amount by weight of at least 1.8% with respect to the weight of compound (I) employed in the reaction. Preferably, an amount of 8- hydroxyquinoline equal to 3.6% of the weight of compound (I) loaded in the reaction is used.

The base employed may be selected from sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, cesium carbonate, sodium tert-butylate, potassium tert-butylate, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.

Preferably, potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is used.

The base is used in an amount by weight of at least 40%, and preferably at least 80%, with respect to the weight of compound (I).

Benzimidazole is used in an amount by weight of at least 30%, preferably at least 36%, with respect to the weight of compound (I).

The Cul catalyst is used in an amount by weight of between 1.2% and 5% of the weight of compound (I). Preferably, an amount by weight of Cul equal to 2.4% with respect to the weight of compound (I) is used.

The crude Galeterone obtainable from the reaction, carried out following the indications referred to above, can be purified by subjecting it to chromatography on silica gel and crystallizing it from organic solvent according to the common techniques known in the field of organic synthesis.

However, the inventors have surprisingly verified that the preparation of a Galeterone compound with an acid and its separation from the reaction mixture by simple filtration proves to be a particularly effective method for reaching, without resorting to chromatographic purifications, the levels of purity that an active ingredient requires to be used in pharmaceutical compositions. As acids, physiologically acceptable inorganic or organic acids may be used, such as hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, maleic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, oxalic acid, benzoic acid, fumaric acid, succinic acid, tartaric acid and xinafoic acid; these acids can be used in anhydrous or hydrated form.

Preferably, oxalic acid hydrate is used as acid, in amounts of at least two moles of acid per mole of Galeterone to be purified, obtaining Galeterone dioxalate, of formula:

After eliminating most of the catalyst by filtration, the solution in which Galeterone has formed can be treated with a metal scavenging agent to eliminate any residual amounts of metal possibly present; suitable for the purpose are the products of the QuadraSil ^® family sold by Sigma-Aldrich, in particular the QuadraSil ^® MP product, consisting of spherical particles of macroporous silica functionalized to remove residual metals from products containing them (QuadraSil ^® is a registered trademark of the company Johnson Matthey).

The formation of Galeterone dioxalate takes place by reaction of Galeterone with oxalic acid in an organic solvent solution, from which the dioxalate separates as filterable solid.

After filtration, the dioxalate is washed with a suitable solvent, e.g. toluene, methylene chloride or acetonitrile, dried (conveniently under reduced pressure), then re-suspended in a suitable organic solvent and treated with a base, added either pure or dissolved in a solvent, to recover pure Galeterone.

The organic solvent in which the dioxalate is suspended is selected from xylene, toluene, cyclohexane, heptane, hexane, methylene chloride and acetonitrile, either pure or mixed with each other; the preferred solvent for this operation is pure methylene chloride.

The base is selected from sodium hydrogen carbonate, potassium hydrogen carbonate, sodium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, cesium carbonate and potassium carbonate, dissolved in water or in an alcohol such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol; preferably it is used sodium hydroxide dissolved in methanol.

The invention will be further illustrated by the following examples.

INSTRUMENTS, METHODS AND TEST CONDITIONS

NMR

Spectrometer NMR JEOL 400 YH (400 MHz); Tubes NMR Aldrich ^® ColorSpec ^® ; JEOL Delta Software v5.1.1 ;

Spectra recorded in deuterated chloroform Sigma-Aldrich: Chloroform-d, D 99.8% atomic, containing 0.1% (v/v) tetramethylsilane (TMS) as internal standard; and Chloroform-d, "100%", D 99.96% atomic, containing 0.03% (v/v) TMS.

MS

HPLC-mass system AB Sciex API 2000 LC/MS/MS;

Samples injected directly and chemically ionized (CI).

DSC

Instrument Perkin Elmer mod. Diamond;

Capsules Perkin Elmer Standard aluminum and lids, code 02190041;

Scanning rate: 10 °C/min;

Temperature range: 20 °C to 200 °C.

IR

Thermo Scientific Nicolet 6700 spectrometer;

FT-IR spectra recorded in KBr (solid) and smart-iTR-diffuse reflectance (ATR);

Potassium bromide Sigma-Aldrich Code 221864 (for IR analysis).

HPLC

Chromatographic system Agilent model 1200 and 1260; Detector UV MODEL 1260 DAD VL and Laser Detector 1290 Infinity ELSD.

LC/Ms/Ms system

Chromatographic system Agilent model 1100 with UV DAD detector connected to an API 2000 mass by Applied Biosystems.

Easy max 102 Mettler Toledo system

Workstation to perform synthesis reactions.

Milestone FlexiWAVE microwave reactor

Microwave reactor with two 950 Watt magnetrons with a total output of 1900 Watt;

The Milestone FlexiWAVE consists of a single microwave platform that, in combination with specific accessories, allows performing classic glassware and high- pressure synthesis.

TLC slides

MERCK: TLC silica gel 60 F ₂₅ 4 Aluminum sheets 20 x 20 cm, code 1.0554.0001. HPTLC slides

MERCK: HPTLC silica gel 60 F ₂₅ 4 with concentration zone 10 x 2.5 cm, code 1.13727.0001.

TLC/HPTLC detector

Acid solution of cerium phosphomolybdate.

Preparation: 25 g of phosphomolybdic acid hydrate (Aldrich P7390), 10 g of cerium (IV) sulfate hydrate (Aldrich 31606) and 600 mL of water are stirred to dissolution with 60 mL of 95-98% sulfuric acid (Aldrich 258105); this is brought to a final volume of 1000 mL with water; the slide is impregnated with the solution, then heated to blue staining.

UV light at 254 and 366 nm.

General conditions of execution of TLC (unless otherwise noted)

Eluent: methylene chloride/methanol 9/1 v/v.

Detector: UV - cerium phosphomolybdic detector.

Reaction sample: 1 mL of reaction mixture in 2 mL water, extracted with 2 mL Isopropyl acetate. Deposited 1 μί.

Slide: TLC silica gel 60 F ₂₅ 4 Aluminum sheets 20 x 20 cm.

Rf Starting 0.60 - Product 0.52

Reference samples: authentic samples identified by NMR and mass analyses. Deposition: each control is carried out by placing on the slide the reaction sample, the reference sample of the starting product and of the final product and an artificial mixture of reaction sample with the reference samples.

Solvents and reagents

The solvents and reagents used in the examples below, unless otherwise indicated, are to be understood of the quality commercially available or obtainable by the preparations described in publications available to the public.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations Rf and RRT used in the examples indicate the delay factor in thin layer chromatography (TLC) and the relative retention time of a compound in high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively.

EXAMPLE 1

(I) (6 RAW) ₍₆ _ox) (6)

300 g 17-iodoandrosta-5,16-dien-3p-ol (I), 260.45 g K2CO3, 106.86 g benzimidazole, 7.18 g Cul, 10.94 g 8-hydroxyquinoline and 1.5 L DMF are loaded to a flask under nitrogen and it is brought to reflux for 16 hours.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of this period, the reaction is complete.

It is cooled to 25 °C, the mixture is poured onto 6 L water and stirred for 15 minutes. It is filtered and the resulting solid is washed with water.

The solid is dissolved in 3 L methylene chloride (CH2CI2), obtaining a biphasic system;

1 L water, 6 g carbon, 15 g dicalite are added and it is stirred for 10 minutes. It is filtered washing the filter with 300 mL CH ₂ C1 ₂ .

The phases are separated and the organic phase is washed with 300 mL of saturated aqueous solution of NaCl.

15 g QuadraSil ^® MP are loaded, it is stirred for 16 hours at 20 < T < 25 °C, filtered on

Millipore (JGWP) membrane, washing with 50 mL CH2CI2. The organic phase is concentrated at 45 °C under reduced pressure distilling about 600 mL of solvent.

Oxalic acid dihydrate (190.06 g) is added to the remaining organic solution and it is stirred for 1 hour.

The resulting solid is filtered, washed with 300 mL CH2CI2 and dried at 45 °C and under reduced pressure for 16 hours.

The solid is re-suspended in 1.35 L acetonitrile (CH3CN), it is brought to reflux for 15 minutes, then cooled to 25 °C.

The mixture is filtered, washed with 450 mL CH3CN, the solid is dried at 45 °C and under reduced pressure, obtaining 358.9 g of crystalline powder (intermediate 6-OX) which the elemental analysis shows as consisting of 63.18% carbon, 6.44% hydrogen, 5.43% nitrogen, 24.73% oxygen.

332.0 g bioxalate intermediate (6-OX) are suspended in 2324 mL CH2CI2; a saturated aqueous solution of NaHC0 ₃ is added dropwise to the suspension, obtaining the complete solubilization of the solid (pH of the aqueous phase equal to 4.7).

The biphasic solution is filtered, the phases are separated and the organic phase is washed with saturated aqueous solution of NaCl (300 mL).

The organic phase is concentrated by distilling to 2/3 of the volume, 700 mL t-butyl alcohol (tBuOH) are loaded; it is distilled up to complete elimination of CH2CI2 and of 120 mL tBuOH. Product precipitation is observed.

581 mL water are loaded and the mixture is brought to reflux. It is cooled to 20 < T < 25 °C, the solid is filtered and washed with 230 mL of tBuOH/water 1/1 mixture, obtaining 293.2 g of wet product.

A sample dried for analytical purposes and analyzed by HPLC shows a chromatographic purity of 99.55%; the HPLC graph is shown in Figure 1.

290 g of wet product are admixed with 506.5 mL tBuOH and 506.5 mL water, the mixture is brought to reflux for a few minutes, it is cooled to 20 < T < 25 °C, the solid is filtered and washed with 200 mL of tBuOH/water 1/1 mixture.

It is dried in an oven at 50 °C under reduced pressure up to constant weight (192.1 g) The product analyzed by HPLC shows a chromatographic purity of 99.73%; the HPLC graph is shown in Figure 2. 190 g of product are solubilized under reflux with 1235 mL (6.5 volumes) of methyl alcohol, MeOH.

95 mL solvent are distilled, then it is cooled to 0 °C for 1 hour. It is filtered and washed with 100 mL cold MeOH. It is dried at 50 °C under reduced pressure for 16 hours.

163.4 g Galeterone with an HPLC purity of 99.83% are obtained; the HPLC graph is shown in Figure 3.

EXAMPLE 2

Under nitrogen, 500 mg 17-iodoandrosta-5,16-dien-3P-ol (I), 12 mg Cul, 430 mg K2CO3, 180 mg benzimidazole, 5 mL DMF and 18 mg 8-hydroxyquinoline are loaded to a glass reactor of the Easy max system by Mettler Toledo and it is brought to reflux for 16 hours.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of this period, the reaction is complete.

The crude sample is chromatographed on silica gel eluting with a mixture of methylene chloride/methanol 9/1. The fractions containing product are concentrated to dryness and refluxed in pure methanol up to dissolution. After cooling, a crystalline solid is filtered which, dried to constant weight, turns out to be pure Galeterone (227 mg).

EXAMPLE 3

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the only difference that DMSO (5 mL) is used as solvent instead of DMF.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is complete.

EXAMPLE 4

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the only difference that DMPU (5 mL) is used as solvent instead of DMF.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is complete.

EXAMPLE 5

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the only difference that 344 mg K2CO3 (68.8% by weight with respect to compound (I)) is used.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is complete.

EXAMPLE 6

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the only difference that 258 mg K2CO3 (51.6 % by weight with respect to compound (I)) is used.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is complete. EXAMPLE 7

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated with the only difference that DMA (5 mL) is used as solvent instead of DMF.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is nearly complete, with about 15% of non-reacted compound (I).

EXAMPLE 8

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated but using 2.5 mL DMF solvent.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is complete.

EXAMPLE 9

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated but using 6 mg Cul.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is partially complete.

EXAMPLE 10

The procedure of Example 2 is repeated but using 9 mg of 8-hydroxyquinoline.

At a TLC check carried out at the end of the reaction, this latter is partially complete.