Nitriles play pivotal roles in a diverse range of pharmaceuticals.[1] The nitrile pharmacophore often engages in key hydrogen bonding, as in the blockbuster drug anastrazole (1),[2] in other cases a covalent attachment occurs, as in the anti-diabetic vildagliptin (2, Scheme 1).[3] Syntheses of many nitrile-containing pharmaceuticals, particularly of those bearing quaternary centers, such as anastrazole [1] and the ...
