A novel strategy to prepare 4-anilinoquinazoline derivatives based on the oxidation of the quinazoline ring is described. Quinazoline oxidation has been investigated and improved, thus leading to an efficient and high yielding method to quinazolin-4(3H)-ones. Efficiency of this approach has been evaluated synthesizing four well known tyrosine kinase inhibitors and comparing the obtained yields with those achievable through conventional synthetic methods. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.