Indalpine

Indalpine (Upstène, LM-5008) is an SSRI class drug that was discovered in 1977 by the pharmacologists Le Fur and Uzan at Pharmuka, a small Paris based pharmaceutical firm, who credit Baron Shopsin and the innovative body of basic and clinical research carried out with colleagues at NYU-Bellevue/NYU School of Medicine in New York as directly responsible for their search to come up with more specific and potent serotonergic neuromodulating molecules for new antidepressant drug development. It was the series of "synthesis inhibitor studies" carried out by Shopsin's team during the early to mid 70's, and in particular, the high impact clinical report by Shopsin et al.(1976) relating to PCPA's rapid reversal of antidepressant response to tranylcyptomanine in depressed patients that furnished the proof of principle needed to delineate a pivotal role for serotonin (5-HT) as the brain monoaminergic neurotransmitter accountable for the therapeutic effects of the then available tricyclic and MAOI class antidepressants. The studies led to widespread recognition of a serotonin hypothesis of depression, displacing the data insupportable, but stubbornly entrenched theories that promoted the role of norepinephrine.