I was looking at those 2 molecules which are quite the same except the hydroxy group at the N.
(see

https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/adrafinil.modafinil.html

)

Can this hydroxy group in adrafinil be reduced to give modafinil ?
Since 300mg of adrafinil ~= 100mg of modafinil in dosage, and the expensive price of modafinil, it would be a cheap way to get modafinil.

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The French Canadian Bee

I looked into that a few years ago, and I think my conclusion was that it would be much less of a hassle to synthesize Modafinil from scratch (anything that would reduce the hydroxamic acid would also reduce the sulfoxide, and possibly make even more damage). None of the synthetic steps are hard to perform, you don't even need to distill any of the intermediates, each and every one is purified through simple recrystallization.

It looks too easy to be true !
Thank you

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The French Canadian Bee