Method for making 3α-hydroxy, 3β- substituted-5α-pregnan-20-ones

1. A method for the manufacture of 3α-hydroxy, 3β-methyl-5α-pregnan-20-one (ganaxolone) comprising

reacting 5α-pregnane-3,20-dione (Dione 2);

with an organometallic methylating agent in an inert solvent and thereby obtaining ganaxolone, wherein the organometallic methylating agent contains iron, titanium, or a combination thereof, and wherein the purity of the ganaxolone is greater than 80 percent area by HPLC.

2. A method for the manufacture of 3α-hydroxy, 3βmethyl-5α-pregnan-20-one (ganaxolone) comprising

reacting 5α-pregnane-3,20-dione (Dione 2);

with an organometallic methylating agent in an inert solvent to provide ganaxolone, wherein the organometallic methylating agent contains iron, titanium, or a combination thereof; and

wherein the yield of ganaxolone is greater than 80 percent.

3. A method for obtaining 3α-hydroxy, 3β-methyl-5α-pregnan-20-one

reacting 5α-pregnane-3,20-dione (Dione 2);

with an organometallic methylating agent in an inert solvent; and thereby obtaining ganaxolone;

wherein the organometallic methylating agent contains iron, titanium, or a combination thereof, and

wherein the ganaxolone obtained contains less than 2 percent area by HPLC of any reaction impurity.

4. The method of claim 3 , additionally comprising heating the obtained ganaxolone in an organic solvent to obtain purified ganaxolone, wherein the purified ganaxolone contains less than 0.1 percent area by HPLC of any reaction impurity.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the ganaxolone obtained contains less than 0.1 percent area by HPLC of an impurity of the formula

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the ganaxolone obtained contains less than 0.1 percent area by HPLC of an impurity of the formula:

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the ganaxolone obtained contains less than 0.5% area by HPLC of an impurity of the formula:

8. The method of claim 4 where the organic solvent is ethyl acetate and the amount of ethyl acetate utilized is 4-15 times the weight of the ganaxolone to be purified.

9. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising heating the obtained ganaxolone in an organic solvent wherein the purified ganaxolone obtained is greater the 99 percent pure by HPLC.

10. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising heating the obtained ganaxolone in an organic solvent wherein the % yield of purified ganaxolone obtained is greater than 55%.

11. The method of any one of claim 1 , additionally comprising generating the organometallic methylating agent by adding about 2 to about 4 equivalents of methyl magnesium halide or methyl lithium to anhydrous ferric halide or anhydrous ferrous halide in an inert solvent, and thereby forming the organometallic methylating agent(s).

12. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising adding lithium chloride to the iron halide in the inert solvent prior to generating the organometallic methylating agent; wherein the amount of lithium chloride added is about 0.1 to about 4 equivalents of lithium chloride to equivalent of iron halide.

13. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising generating the organometallic methylating agent by adding about 1 equivalent of methylmagnesium halide or methyllithium to a solution of tri(C 1 -C 3 alkoxy) titanium chloride in an organic solvent and thereby generating the organometallic methylating agent.

14. The method of claim 1 where the organometallic methylating agent is dimethyl iron (Me 2 Fe), methyl triethoxy titanium, methylchloro diethoxy titanium ((CH 3 )Cl(CH 3 CH 2 O) 2 Ti), methyl trichlorotitanium (CH 3 Cl 3 Ti), tetramethyltitanium ((CH 3 ) 4 Ti), dimethyl dichloro titanium ((CH 3 ) 2 Ti), trimethyl chlorotitanium ((CH 3 ) 3 ClTi), or methyl iron chloride (CH 3 FeCl).

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the organometallic methylating agent is an ate complex containing a (Me) 3 Fe − anion and either lithium or MgX, as the cation, where X is a halide.

16. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising generating the organometallic methylating agent by

adding about 1 equivalent of methylmagnesium halide or methyllithium to a solution of anhydrous di(C 1 -C 3 alkoxy) titanium dichloride in an inertsolvent and thereby generating the organometallic methylating agent.

17. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising generating the organometallic methylating agent by

adding about 1 to about 4 equivalent of methyl magnesium halide or methyllithium to TiC 1 4 in an inert solvent and thereby generating the organometallic methylating agent.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inert solvent is tetrahydrofuran, glyme, t-butyl methyl ether, 1,4-dioxane, dimethoxyethane, or diethyl ether.

19. The method of claim 1 where methylmagnesium chloride is utilized to generate the organometallic methylating agent.

20. A method of claim 1 where methyllithium is utilized to generate the organometallic methylating agent.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inert solvent is maintained at a temperature of about −40° C. to about 35° C. during the reaction.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inert solvent is tetrahydrofuran and the inert solvent temperature is maintained a temperature of less than about −15° C. during the reaction.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the organometallic methylating agent is

MeFeX, Me 2 Fe, Me 3 Fe−Y+ or Me 4 Fe( 2− )2Y+, methyl triethoxytitanium, MeCl(CH 3 CH 2 O) 2 Ti, CH 3 Cl 3 Ti, (CH 3 ) 4 Ti, (CH 3 )Cl 2 Ti, or (CH 3 ) 3 ClTi, or a combination of any of the foregoing; where Y+ is Li+ and/or [MgX]+; and X is Cl, Br or I.