An easily removable pyrimidine‐based auxiliary has been employed for the remote meta‐C−H cyanation of arenes. The scope of this Pd‐catalyzed cyanation reaction using copper(I) cyanide as the cyanating agent was demonstrated with benzylsilanes, benzylsulfonates, benzylphophonates, phenethylsulfonates, and phenethyl ether derivatives. The method was utilized for the synthesis of pharmaceutically valuable
Selective meta-C-H activation of arenes to date has met with a limited number of functionalizations. Expanding the horizon of meta-C-H functionalization, herein we disclose an unprecedented meta-silylation and -germanylation protocol by employing a simple nitrile-based directing template. Longer linkers between the target site and the directing template were successfully explored for meta-silylation (sp(2)-epsilon and sp(2)-zeta). Additionally, synthetic utility was demonstrated with several postsynthetic elaborations and with a formal synthesis of TAC101, a promising drug for the treatment of lung cancer.