Methyl 6-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate (CAS number 455-71-0, also known as methyl 6-fluoropicolinate, is a pyridine derivative with a methyl carboxylate at 2-position and a fluoride at 6-position. Methyl 6-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate is readily used to functionalize molecular scaffolds for synthesizing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), through nucleophilic aromatic substitution on the fluoride group. A selective antagonist of BCL-XL for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia treatment is synthesized from methyl 6-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate, showing a potency of 14 nM.
Once methyl 6-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate is hydrolysed, it becomes a bidentate chelating agent. A Ru-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate complex shows cytotoxicity of 27.5 µM in antitumour activity. Hydrolysed methyl 6-fluoropyridine-2-carboxylate is also employed as a ligand in palladium-catalyzed C-H acetoxylation of arenes.