This paper describes the development of a continuous, high yielding, and scalable enolization, oxidation, and quench process for the hydroxylation of the azapirone psychtropic agent buspirone to afford 6-hydroxybuspirone (6-hydroxy-8-[4-(4-pyrimidin-2-yl-piperazin-1-yl)-butyl]-8-aza-spiro[4.5]decane-7,9-dione). Two feed streams were reacted continuously using an in-line static mixer followed by oxidation in a continuous flow trickle-bed reactor. The laboratory reactor operation was demonstrated at steady state for over 40 h. The process was scaled up using both volumetric (enolization) and numbering-up (oxidation) scale-up strategies. A pilot-plant reactor was developed and successfully implemented in a three-batch campaign (47 kg input per batch).

• Bristol-Myers Squibb

• API

1. 6-hydroxybuspirone
2. API
3. buspirone
4. continuous flow
5. Enolates
6. oxidation
7. Research Article
8. Scale-up
9. trickle-bed reactor