Etiprednol dicloacetate, a new soft glucocorticoid drug candidate. Development of chemistry.

During development of chemistry of the soft drug candidate etiprednol dicloacetate (BNP-166) 1) optimization studies on the three-step chemical synthesis resulted in a process that could be scaled-up to the kg level, 2) the impurity profile was determined, 3) synthetic routes were developed for the preparation of the radiolabeled target compound, and 4) a series of hydroxylated metabolites was prepared.