N‐Acyl‐Glutarimides: Privileged Scaffolds in Amide N–C Bond Cross‐Coupling

In this Microreview, we describe the recent exciting developments in the burgeoning area of amide N–C cross‐coupling enabled by amide bond twist of N‐acyl‐glutarimides. Since the initial reports in 2015, these amides have been demonstrated to be by far the most reactive amide derivatives in the biologically‐relevant manifold of N–C activation/cross‐coupling, thus stimulating the development of more than 10 previously unknown catalytic modes of reactivity of the amide bond. The capacity of N‐acyl‐glutarimides as privileged scaffolds to expedite acyl and decarbonylative cross‐couplings by amide N–C cleavage is discussed.