Potent thrombin inhibitor 2 is prepared in 10 steps with 20% overall yield from commercial 4 on a kg-scale by the convergent approach depicted in Schemes 1 and 2. The (R)- configuration of the 4-amidinophenylalanine piperidide moiety is controlled by asymmetric hydrogenation. A novel method, the hydrogenolysis of amidoximes 11 and 21, is employed to attain a particularly clean transformation of the cyano into the amidinium functionality. ...