Synthesis Design of an Anti-Obesity Agent ‘Sibutramine’: A Reatrosynthetic Approach

Organic synthesis plays the central role in the process of drug design and development. Retrosynthetic analysis represents a very powerful tool for designing convergent and economical synthetic routes of targeted drugs. In this paper, we report some synthetic protocols for a potent anti-obesity agent ‘Sibutramine’ in a novel way basing on retrosynthetic analysis. The proposed synthesis schemes being a theoretical exploration, the actual laboratory implementation requires the cross examination of a considerable number of factors such as reactions, reagents and order of events. Generally, the route which is cost-effective, safe, employ readily available starting materials and produce maximum yield in a short reaction time under robust condition is most viable.