Patent 7928240 was granted and assigned to Hetero Drugs on April, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention relates to a process for preparing substituted sulfoxides either as a single enantiomer or in an enantiomerically enriched form. Thus, racemic omeprazole is reacted with (S)-camphorsulfonyl chloride to form a diastereomeric mixture and the diastereomers are separated by fractional crystallization, followed by deprotection to give esomeprazole.