The commercially available N-Boc protected methyl ester 11 was converted to the corresponding primary amide 12 using the published procedure (methanolic ammonia; Scheme 3). 8a Although Pfizer's approach to the dehydration of their primary amide relied on the Burgess reagent in chlorinated solvent, 8a 12 could alternatively be smoothly dehydrated applying recently disclosed technology based on an "amide exchange"; 15,22 that is, using commercially available fluoroacetonitrile 23 as the sacrificial acceptor of water under Pd-catalyzed conditions, resulting in nitrile 13 (93%).