Scalable Preparation of 4,4-Disubstituted Six-Membered Cyclic Sulfones

We provide an account of synthetic strategies aimed at the efficient preparation of 4-amino-4-methyltetrahydro-2H-thiopyran 1,1-dioxide (3), an important cyclic sulfone building block for medicinal chemistry. A practical and scalable protocol has been developed that readily gives access to the title compound from commercially available and inexpensive starting materials. In addition, this novel approach has enabled the synthesis of various related 4,4-disubstituted cyclic sulfone derivatives that serve as valuable structural motifs for drug discovery.