Synthetic studies on statins. Part 3: A facile synthesis of rosuvastatin calcium through catalytic enantioselective allylation strategy

A concise and stereocontrolled synthesis of rosuvastatin calcium has been accomplished, with the key steps including a Keck enantioselective allylation of chloroacetaldehyde with allyltributylstannane to install 5R-stereocenter and a VO(acac)2-catalyzed syn-diastereoselective epoxidation of (S)-1-chloropent-4-en-2-ol to set the requisite 3R-chirality.