Presently there is a strong interest in developing radioligands for in vivo imaging the GABAA- Bz site with positron emission tomography (PET). Flumazenil (1), a high-affinity GABAA-Bz site inverse agonist, is amenable for 11C and 18F-labeling. The current methods for synthesis of 1 and its precursor for 18F-labeling are not ideal and restrict structure–activity relationship (SAR) development. Herein we present a novel and less troublesome ...