concomitant decarboxylation the acrylate is reacted directly with the dianion derived from the appropriate cycloalkane or cycloalkene carboxylic acid by treatment with a strong base e g lithium diisopropylamide to give the glutaric acid mono ester of formula iii alternatively the acid is reacted with a 3 bromopropionate to give the corresponding ester viii this is then alkylated by reaction with a strong base e g lithium diisopropylamide at low temperature to generate the dianion followed by addition of the appropriate compound of formula r 5 39 x wherein x is leaving group e g trifluoromethane sulphonyloxy or halo preferably bromo or a michael addition acceptor e g a vinyl sulphone to again yield the glutaric acid mono ester of formula iii the amines of formula iv are generally known compounds which are commercially available or they may be prepared by conventional methods in accordance with literature methods for example in the case where b is ch 2 2 by reduction of the corresponding benzoic acid compounds of the formula i wherein one or both of r and r 4 is a biolabile ester forming group are prepared following similar procedures to those described above thus in one variant of the process outlined in scheme 1 a compound of formula iii wherein r 13 is a biolabile ester forming group is coupled to the appropriate compound of formula iv wherein r 14 is a benzyl group and the product is hydrogenated to give.