C-H Acetoxylation-Based Chemical Synthesis of 17 β-Hydroxymethyl-17 α-methyl-18-norandrost-13-ene Steroids.

Palladium-catalyzed C-H acetoxylation has been proposed as a key transformation in the first chemical synthesis of steroids bearing a unique 17β-hydroxymethyl-17α-methyl-18-nor-13-ene D-fragment. This C-H functionalization step was crucial for inverting the configuration at the quaternary stereocenter of a readily available synthetic intermediate. The developed approach was applied to prepare the metandienone metabolite needed as a reference substance in anti-doping analysis to control the abuse of this androgenic anabolic steroid.