13 halo c 076 aglycone the halogenation is most readily carried out in the presence of a sufficiently reactive benzenesulfonylhalide compound in the presence of a base the presence of electron withdrawing substituents on the benzenesulfonylhalide is advantageous and o nitro substitution is preferred the reaction is carried out in a non protic inert solvent such as a halogenated alkyl compound preferably methylene chloride or chloroform the reactants are combined slowly at an initial temperature of from 25 u00b0 to 10 u00b0 c to control any initial exothermic reactions and are maintained at this temperature for up to 2 hours the reaction temperature is then raised to from about room temperature to the reflux temperature of the reaction mixture for from 10 minutes to 6 hours it is necessary to carry out the reaction in the presence of a base preferably an organic amine it has been found to be preferable to employ the combination of a 4 diloweralkylamino pyridine and trialkylamine it is most preferred to employ 4 dimethylaminopyridine and diisopropylethylamine as bases for the foregoing reactions the 13 deoxy 13 halo c 076 aglycone compounds are isolated by procedures known to those skilled in this art in order to avoid unwanted side reactions it is important that in those c 076 compounds with a hydroxy group at the 5 position the b series of compounds and to a lesser extent the 23 hydroxy of the 2 series of compounds that said hydroxy group be protected the protecting group is ideally one which may be readily.