Fipexide (Attentil, Vigilor) is a psychoactive drug of the piperazine chemical class which was developed in Italy in 1983.[1] It was used as a nootropic drug in Italy and France, mainly for the treatment of senile dementia,[2] but is no longer in common use due to the occurrence of rare adverse drug reactions including fever[3] and hepatitis. Fipexide is similar in action to other nootropic drugs such as piracetam and has a few similarities in chemical structure to centrophenoxine. Chemically, it is an amide union of parachlorophenoxyacetate and methylenedioxybenzylpiperazine (MDBZP), and has been shown to metabolize to the latter, which plays a significant role in its effects.
PTC alkylation of piperazine (1) with 2 equivalents of piperonyl chloride [25054-53-9] (2) in the presence of cetrimonium bromide gives 1,4-bis-piperonylpiperazine [55436-41-4] (3). Base catalyzed treatment with 4-Chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4) displaces one of the piperonyl groups to give fipexide (5).