Abstract: The present invention provides, inter alia, convergent processes for preparing eptifibatide that involve coupling a 2-6 eptifibatide fragment to an activated cysteinamide residue to form a 2-7 eptifibatide fragment, attaching a mercaptopropionic acid residue to the 2-7 eptifibatide fragment through disulfide bond formation, coupling the peptide intramolecularly, and removing the protecting group, to form eptifibatide. The invention further provides products produced by the described processes, novel compounds that can be used as synthetic intermediates for the preparation of eptifibatide, and novel compounds that are structurally similar to eptifibatide.