A New Process To Prepare 1-(4-Chlorobenzyl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxamide, a Potential Anticoccidial Agent

Anticoccidials are an important class of compounds for treating parasitic diseases of a wide variety of animals, especially poultry. 1-(4-Chlorobenzyl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxamide (1) has been reported in the patent literature to possess potent anticoccidial activity. In view of the earlier published synthetic process, which relies on expensive imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid (IDA) as a starting material, a potentially more cost-effective process to prepare 1 from diaminomaleonitrile (DAMN) was developed. This article describes the development details for each of the three steps involved in the new process.