What is Naltrexone made of?

[Guest guest]

What is Naltrexone made of?

Naltrexone was first synthesized (that is, created in a laboratory)

in 1963. It was patented in 1967 as " Endo 1639A " (US patent no.

3332950) by Endo Laboratories, a small pharmaceutical company in

Long Island, NY, a company with extensive experience in narcotics.

Endo was eventually purchased by Dupont Pharmaceuticals.

Credit for synthesizing Naltrexone goes to three scientists: Irwin

Pachter, Z. Matossian and Harold Blumberg. Blumberg was director of

the biological labs at Endo at the time.

They created Naltrexone in the laboratory from oxymorphone.

Oxymorphone (brandname Numorphan) is a powerful semi-synthetic

narcotic analgesic that is derived from morphine, but is

approximately 6-8 times more potent. Really scary stuff.

Even though Naltrexone was created from oxymorphone, it is an

opioid agonist. (That is, it works against opiods.) If anyone on

earth cares, Naltrexone differs in structure from oxymorphone in

that the methyl group on the nitrogen atom is replaced by a

cyclopropylmethyl group.

Naltrexone is closely related to the potent opioid antagonist,

naloxone, or n-allylnoroxymorphone.

I'll shut up now.

Maureen

(Geeky Gazorpa)