Chemoenzymatic process for the synthesis of escitalopram

摘要

A process is described for the preparation of escitalopram and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof starting from 5-cyanophthalide by a process which provides an enantioselective enzymatic deacylation reaction of a complex of the formula
where R represents a C 1 -C 4 alkyl residue or an aryl residue under the action of an esterase from Aspergillus niger.