A Historic Overview of Methadone

Methadone was synthetized for the first time in the year 1939. This was achieved by the chemical research laboratories of the IG Farbenkonzern. The company was located in Frankfurt am Main.

It was the result of an extended and continuous analysis in regards to analgetics - an area of research that had its beginnings at the dawn of the 19th century. Towards the end of the second decade of the 20th century, the scientists at Hoechst had focussed their study on the continuing development of drugs with both analgetic andspasmolytic characteristics.

A very first significant progress in study was finally made in 1937. It was then, when the the German chemists found and isolated Pethidin or pethidine, chemically referred to as methyl-phenyl-carbaethoxypiperidin. This is an efficient opioid analgesic. The drug was released in Germany in the year 1939 - its first trade name was Dolanti.

The chemists Ehrhart and Bockmuehl found a variety of fundamentally substituted diphenylmethanes. One particular of those compounds was dimethylamino-diphenylheptanon. The two scientists numbered it Va 10820 - it was to become commonly referred to as methadone in 1947.

As a result of the substantial number of chemical discoveries in the late 30s, scientists began pharmacological tests that involved Va 10820 at the beginning of 1942. The compound known as Va 10820 was also offered to the the German armed forces - the code denomination Amidon was used. Thus far, there is certainly no tangible proof that this substance was, in fact, given to the German army in large quantities.

There is certainly no proof that the substance known as Amidon has ever been employed as medication against severe pain in military hospitals. Furthermore, the drug was neverauthorized for commercial production. Hence, the civil medical sector had ended up excluded from being provided with Amidon.

As a consequence, it truly is absurd to imply that methadone had extensively been employed throughout the war, acting as a replacement for morphine, with the trade denomination Dolophin or Dolophine being used. Also, any statements that the drug Amidon was, in fact, referred to as Adolfin or Adolphine amongst soldiers is completely unfounded. The truth is, the denomination Adolphine is the creation of the journalists of the United States at the beginning of the 70s.

The invention of the denomination Adolphine by New York journalists during the 70s was only an attempt of the media to discredit methadone therapy by the people who were unsympathetic to it, making use of the association with Hitler's name.

The scientific discovery of Pethidin or pethidine, Amidon and a number of other analgesics based on opium ought to not be noticed isolated from Hitler's try to accomplish an independent state - of financial independent of other nations - historically referred to as autarchy. This was pronounced in the year 1936 when Hitler presented his notorious Four-Year-War-Plan. As a following of the organisation of the trade and market sector in Germany, there was clearly also an upgrading of efforts to grow to be independent on opium import, which was required for the manufacture of morphine.

Needless to say, the scientific discoveries of drugs can't be commanded by political figures or armed forces. Acting together had been both intensified study activities within the purpose of the Four-Year-War-Plan as well as many years of studying painkillers. The more economic assistance, the more intensive analysis is achievable as well as the more probabilities are there to generate discoveries.

Soon after World War II, the patents, together with all the trade names and investigation records were confiscated. The existing records with regards to the investigation work of the IG Farbenkonzern had been confiscated by the US and investigated by a committee from the US Department of State.

It was in 1947 that the so-called Amidon was finally given the name methadone. Due to the fact that the rights of the IG Farbenkonzern were not protected anymore, every single pharmaceutical firm, which was interested in the drug, could buy the legal rights for the manufacturing of methadone for only 1 Dollar.

Commercial methadone production was initially started in 1947 by an US company known as Eli-Lilly. Only then was methadone beginning to be known as Dolophine - based on the Latin words dolor and finis.

Since then, methadone, instead of being used as a prescribed medication, grew to be a dangerous drug that generates addiction and puts many lives at risk.