Synthesis of the key intermediate of ramelteon

Asymmetric conjugated addition of allylcopper reagents derived from an allyl Grignard reagent and CuBr·Me2S to chiral α,β-unsaturated N-acyl oxazolidinones has been achieved. The synthetic procedure was applied to the preparation of the key intermediate of the novel nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic drug, ramelteon.