Abstract Biphenyl nitriles 5a—c, terphenyl dinitriles 11a—d, and naphthalene-bis (benzonitrile) 11e were prepared by palladium-catalyzed cross coupling reactions and subsequently converted to biphenyl amidines 8a—c and bis (benzamidines) 4a—e. Among the biphenyl amidines 8 only the meta-derivative 8b inhibits factor Xa and trypsin (K i= 10 μM). The terphenyl bisamidine 4c does not inhibit factor Xa, trypsin, thrombin, and plasmin ...