A Lewis-acid-catalyzed method for the substrate-directed formation of peptide bonds has been developed, and this powerful approach is utilized for the new "remote" activation of carboxyl groups under solvent-free conditions. The presented method has the following advantages: 1) the high-yielding peptidesynthesis uses a tantalum catalyst for any amino acids; 2) the reaction proceeds without any racemization;
Provided is a novel method for producing amide compounds at high stereochemical selectivities. The method according to the present invention for producing amide compounds is provided with an amidation step for reacting, in the presence of a catalyst comprising a metal compound, an amino compound with an aminoester compound represented by general formula (1) to amidate the ester group in the aminoester compound.