During a search for novel anti-HIV-1 agents, we planned the synthesis of the indolyl aryl sulfones 7 and 8, whose preparation required ethyl 5-chlorod-fluoro-1H-indole-2- carboxylate (5) and ethyl 5-chloro-4-fluoro-1 H-indole-2-carboxylate (6) as starting materials, respectively (Fig. 1). I
