US Patent 7247750 Process for preparing (R)-salbutamol

Disclosed are processes for preparing levosalbutamol or the pharmacologically acceptable salts thereof on an industrial scale, using asymmetric hydrogenation as the key step and optionally a special sequence of subsequent steps, using rhodium as catalyst and a chiral bidentate phosphine ligand such as (2R, 4R)-4-(dicyclohexylphosphino)-2-(diphenyl-phosphino-methyl)-N-methyl-aminocarbonyl-pyrrolidine as catalyst system.