A synthetic approach for (S)-(3-benzyl-3-methyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-6-yl)-piperidin-1-yl-methanone, a selective CB2 receptor agonist

(S)-(3-Benzyl-3-methyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-6-yl)-piperidin-1-yl-methanone, a selective CB2 receptor agonist, was obtained from 3-hydroxy-4-iodo benzoic acid in nine steps with 97.4% ee and 3.4% total yield, which involved palladium catalyzed tandem intramolecular Heck/Suzuki cross coupling reaction, chemical resolution with (+)-norephedrine and Wolf–Kishner reaction as the key steps. (S)-(3-Benzyl-3-methyl-2,3-dihydro-benzofuran-6-yl)-piperidin-1-yl-methanone will be evaluated in vivo studies and this approach will be applied in the optimization process of CB2 receptor agonist.