Oxycodone - History

History

Freund and Speyer of the University of Frankfurt in Germany first synthesized oxycodone from thebaine in 1916, a few years after the German pharmaceutical company Bayer had stopped the mass production of heroin due to hazardous use, harmful use, and dependence. It was hoped that a thebaine-derived drug would retain the analgesic effects of morphine and heroin with less dependence. To some extent this was achieved, as oxycodone does not have the same immediate effect as heroin or morphine nor does it last as long.

The first clinical use of the drug was documented in 1917, the year after it was first developed. It was first introduced to the US market in May 1939. In early 1928, Merck introduced a combination product containing scopolamine, oxycodone, and ephedrine under the German initials for the ingredients SEE, which was later renamed Scophedal (SCOpolamine ePHEDrine & eukodAL)—this combination is essentially an oxycodone analogue of the morphine-based Twilight Sleep with ephedrine added to reduce circulatory and respiratory effects.

The International Narcotics Control Board estimates that 11.5 tons (23,000 lbs) of oxycodone were manufactured worldwide in 1998; by 2007 this figure had grown to 75.2 tons (150,400 lbs). Of all countries, the United States had the highest total consumption of oxycodone in 2007 at 51.6 tons (103,200 lbs) or 82% of the world total. This translates into over half a billion 80 mg tablets per year. In addition, the U.S. had the highest per capita consumption of oxycodone, followed by Canada in 2006, 2007 and 2008. This makes the consumption of oxycodone in North America (United States and Canada alone) higher than all other countries of the world combined. The United States and Canada are consistently ranked among the top two or three in most type of opioid consumption per capita (for example, in 2006 Canada ranked second and the U.S. ranked third in morphine consumption per capita; only Austria ranked higher and that is due to the fact that in addition to being used to treat moderate to severe pain, morphine is also used to treat heroin or morphine dependence in Austria—a practice which is unheard of in North America) Oxycontin is now called OxyNeo now which is impossible to crush, chew, snort, smoke, and inject.