Commercial Manufacturing of Propofol: Simplifying the Isolation Process and Control on Related Substances

A commercially viable manufacturing process for propofol (<b>1</b>) is described. The process avoids acid–base neutralization events during isolation of intermediate, 2,6-di-isopropylbenzoic acid (<b>3</b>) and crude propofol, and thus simplifies the synthesis on industrial scale to a considerable extent. Syntheses of five impurities/related substances (USP and EP) are also described