Cisatracurium Besilate - History

History

The generic name cisatracurium was conceived by scientists at Burroughs Wellcome Co. (now part of GlaxoSmithKline) by combining the name "atracurium" with "cis" because the molecule is one of the three cis-cis isomers comprising the ten isomers of the parent, atracurium. Atracurium itself was invented at Strathclyde University and licensed to Burroughs Wellcome Co., Research Triangle Park, NC, for further development and subsequent marketing as Tracrium. As the secondary pharmacology of atracurium was being developed, it became clear that the primary clinical disadvantage of atracurium was likely to be its propensity to elicit histamine release. To address this issue, a program was initiated to investigate the individual isomer constituents of atracurium to identify and isolate the isomer(s) associated with the undesirable histamine effects as well as identify the isomer that might possibly retain the desirable properties without the histamine release. Thus, in 1989, D A Hill and G L Turner, PhD (both chemists at Burroughs Wellcome Co., Dartford, UK) first synthesized cisatracurium as an individual isomer molecule. The pharmacological research of cisatrcurium and the other individual isomers was then developed further primarily by R. Brandt Maehr and William B. Wastila, PhD (both of whom were pharmacologists within the Division of Pharmacology at Burroughs Wellcome Co.) in collaboration with John J. Savarese MD (who at the time was an anesthesiologist in the Dept. of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA). Thereafter, the entire clinical development of cisatracurium was completed in a record short period from 1992 to 1994: the team of scientists was led by J. Neal Weakly PhD, Martha M. Abou-Donia PhD, and Steve Quessy PhD, in the Division of Clinical Neurosciences at Burroughs Wellcome Co., Research Triangle Park, NC. By the time of its approval for human use, in 1995, by the US Food and Drug Administration, Burroughs Wellcome Co. had merged with Glaxo Inc., and cisatracurium was approved to be marketed as Nimbex by GlaxoWellcome Inc. The trade name "Nimbex" was derived from inserting an "i" to the original proposal "Nmbex," which stood for excellent Neuromuscular blocker.

Owing to the intense marketing rivalry, during the 1980s and 1990s, between the two major competitors at the time in this area of anesthesia (i.e., Organon Inc. and Burroughs Wellcome, Co.), it was not surprising then that the knives of scrutiny and skepticism were already being sharpened against cisatracurium in the court of peer-reviewed publications even before the voluminous documentation necessary for impartial review and approval of the drug had barely been dispatched to the desks at the US Food and Drug Administration.