Indalpine was invented by 1977 and was introduced for medical use in France in 1983.[2][3] Two years later, in 1985, it was withdrawn from the market due to toxicity.[2][4] Indalpine has sometimes been said to be the first SSRI.[2][3] However, it was preceded by the SSRI zimelidine (Zelmid), which was invented in 1969 and was introduced to the market in 1981 (then similarly withdrawn due to toxicity in 1983).[2][5][4]
It was invented in 1977 by the pharmacologists Le Fur and Uzan at Pharmuka, a small French pharmaceutical firm, who credit Baron Shopsin and his colleagues at NYU-Bellevue or NYU School of Medicine in New York with providing the basis for their work. They were particularly influenced by the series of "synthesis inhibitor studies" carried out by Shopsin's team during the early to mid 1970s, and in particular, the clinical report by Shopsin et al. (1976)[8] relating to PCPA's rapid reversal of antidepressant response to tranylcypromine in depressed patients. This led to an understanding of the role of the monoamine neurotransmitterserotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, or 5HT) in the therapeutic effects of the available tricyclic and MAOI class antidepressants. The studies led to widespread recognition of a serotonin hypothesis of depression, contradicting theories that promoted the role of norepinephrine.
While citalopram and zimelidine were developed in the early 1970s, it was Pharmuka's indalpine that was first to reach the market. Baron Shopsin was recruited as consultant to Pharmuka throughout a research and development process that resulted in the marketing of indalpine in France and then worldwide, in 1982. With FDA approval of Pharmuka's Investigational New Drug (IND) submission to conduct clinical studies with indalpine and viqualine, Shopsin carried out and published the first clinical trials with these drugs in depressed outpatients in the United States.[9] Astra's SSRI zimelidine was marketed within a year (1983), but the next crop of SSRIs didn't become commercially available until the 1986 marketing of fluvoxamine in Belgium by Duphar, followed by approval in the United States later that year. Lilly's fluoxetine (Prozac) was approved in the United States in 1987.
Meanwhile, zimelidine had been withdrawn soon after its marketing in 1983 due to the emergence of Guillain–Barré syndrome, a serious neurological disease. With lingering concerns among some Common Market countries and activist groups about the potential of SSRIs to induce adverse effects, and the reported association between indalpine and hematological effects, which emerged in the aftermath of Pharmuka's take over by Rhône Poulenc, indalpine was abruptly taken off the market by Rhône Poulenc. Irish psychiatrist David Healy characterized indalpine as being "born at the wrong time" during a period when "indalpine and psychiatry was under siege" by different interest groups in some of the Common Market countries.[5] In line with indalpine's fate, research and development was halted relating to the two other 4-alkylpiperidine derivatives developed by Pharmuka, viqualine (a serotonin releasing agent) and pipequaline (a GABAA receptorpositive allosteric modulator), both in different stages of development at the time.[citation needed]
In 2010, revision of this molecular motif yielded SERT inhibitors with nanomolar and subnanomolar IC50 values.[10]
Society and culture
Names
Indalpine is the generic name of the drug and its INNTooltip International Nonproprietary Name and BANTooltip British Approved Name.[1] It was also known by its developmental code name LM-5008.[1][11] The drug was sold under the brand name Upstène.[1][11]
^ abcdeHealy D (14 October 2020). The Psychopharmacologists III(PDF). CRC Press. doi:10.4324/9781003058892-1. ISBN978-1-003-05889-2. It now seems clomipramine is useful for OCD because of its action on the 5HT system. This leads on to a Rhône-Poulenc drug which as I understand it was the first SSRI to be released clinically – Upstene, Indalpine. Can you tell me anything about it? Br: Well it wasn't made in Rhône-Poulenc. It was Fournier Freres, who were part of Pharmuka, who in turn became part of Rhône-Poulenc. Indalpine was launched in 1983. Gr: It was withdrawn because of side effects, neutropenia supposedly but that was not all. This drug had been launched before all the carcinogenicity results were in and when they were all available the drug had to be withdrawn. [...] Of 500,000 patients treated in 1984, the Pharmacovigilance committee had reports of 30 cases of neutropenia. Upstene in fact won the Prix Galien for pharmaceutical innovation in 1983.
^Gueremy C, Audiau F, Uzan A, Le Fur G, Rataud J (December 1980). "3-(4-Piperidinylalkyl)indoles, selective inhibitors of neuronal 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake". Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 23 (12): 1306–1310. doi:10.1021/jm00186a005. PMID7452682.
^"Indalpine". Pharmaceutical Substances. Georg Thieme Verlag KG. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
^Shopsin B, Friedman E, Gershon S (July 1976). "Parachlorophenylalanine reversal of tranylcypromine effects in depressed patients". Archives of General Psychiatry. 33 (7): 811–819. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1976.01770070041003. PMID133650.
^Shopsin B, Lefebvre C, Maulet C (1983). "Indalpine (LM-5008): An open study in depressed outpatients". Current Therapeutic Research. 34 (1): 239–252.
^Marcin LR, Mattson RJ, Gao Q, Wu D, Molski TF, Mattson GK, et al. (February 2010). "Synthesis and hSERT activity of homotryptamine analogs. Part 6: [3+2] dipolar cycloaddition of 3-vinylindoles". Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 20 (3): 1027–1030. doi:10.1016/j.bmcl.2009.12.043. PMID20034793.