Synthesis Planning of a Potent Opioid Analgesic “Fentanyl”: A Retrosynthetic Approach

Synthesis of pharmaceuticals/drugs for the process development, reaction condition optimization, and scale-up production is a part and parcel of modern drug discovery process. Design synthetic routes to pharmaceuticals/drugs via retrosynthetic analysis, coined by Nobel Laureate Prof. E.J. Corey of Harvard University, has emerged as a powerful analytical tool in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry and most responsible for yielding material benefits to mankind. Keeping an overview on the works published in both journals and patent literatures a good number of synthesis schemes have been proposed in a novel way for a potent analgesic “fentanyl” from the results of its retrosynthetic analysis. In actual practice, generally that route is most feasible which is cost-effective, safe, produce maximum yield in a short reaction time under robust conditions.