Favipiravir was first synthesized from an inexpensive and commercially available starting material, 2-aminopyrazine. The preferred route embedded within Scheme  4 consisted of seven steps, and was highlighted by the novel and efficient synthesis of 3,6-dichloropyrazine-2-carbonitrile 8 . This intermediate was prepared in four successive steps which were regioselective chlorination of the pyrazine ring, bromination, Pd-catalyzed cyanation, and Sandmeyer diazotization/chlorination. This protocol eliminated the hazardous POCl 3 of previous synthetic methods and offered a better yield (48%) which was 1.3-fold higher than a recently published procedure. From intermediate 8 , the subsequent nucleophilic fluorination, nitrile hydration and hydroxyl substitution efficiently afforded the target product. Another synthetic approach with the same starting material was also investigated to bypass the allergy-causing dichloro intermediate 8 . However, the key step of monofluorination at the pyrazine C6 position of intermediate 19 or 22 was not achieved.