Hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B polymerase is a key target for anti-HCV therapeutics development. Here we report the synthesis and biological evaluation of a new series of α, γ- diketo acids (DKAs) as NS5B polymerase inhibitors. We initiated structure–activity relationship (SAR) optimization around the furan moiety of compound 1a [IC50= 21.8 μM] to achieve more active NS5B inhibitors. This yielded compound 3a [IC50= 8.2 μM] bearing ...