Chance and coincidence played a part in the development of Atracurium, the muscle relaxant used by anaesthetists in more than half of all operations world-wide. This ongoing licensing success story ranks as one of the University of Strathclyde’s most notable commercial achievements.
The starting point for Atracurim was curare, the naturally occurring resinous substance that South American Indians used to tip their poison arrows. When introduced into the blood stream the poison literally paralyses the victim. Surgical muscle relaxants work in exactly the same way, but in a highly controlled manner.
Professor John Stenlake was drawn into muscle relaxant research shortly after joining the University of Strathclyde in the early 1950’s. A chance discussion with a colleague whose avenue of interest was neuro-muscular agents led him to realise that the intermediates he was using would also serve as intermediates in synthesising a new class of muscle relaxants.
Further
developed by a team of pharmacists in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,
from 1969 to the mid 1970s Atracurium is one of the few drugs to have been
designed and synthesised in a University environment. Through licensing
to what is now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) it was subsequently developed and launched
commercially in 1982.
Atracurium won the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement in
1986 and to date has brought in more than £28.5 million in royalties
to the University of Strathclyde.
