Diastereoselective synthesis of mixanpril, an orally active dual inhibitor of neutral endopeptidase and angiotensin converting enzyme

A new diastereoselective synthesis of mixanpril, N-[(2S,3R)-2-benzoylthiomethyl-3-phenylbutanoyl]-L-alanine, a dual inhibitor of neutral endopeptidase and angiotensin converting enzyme, which could be used in the treatment of chronic hypertension and cardiac failure has been developed in order to obtain large quantities of this compound necessary for preclinical screening. As expected we showed that a complete inhibition of both enzymes was obtained after oral administration of mixanpril in anaesthesized rats.