December 16, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
NEW YORK – Zombies. They are arguably the most popular monsters in pop culture these days, but a synthetic cannabinoid originally developed by Pfizer has been linked to drug overdoses that led some observers to describe the victims as “zombielike.”
In July, 33 people were sent to the hospital after reports of people stumbling around parts of Brooklyn in a dazed and confused state. Toxicology results from blood and urine samples indicate the victims had taken a synthetic cannabinoid designer drug based off of Pfizer’s AMB-FUBINACA, the New York Times reported. The drug was first patented by Pfizer in 2009, but was never advanced into human trials, the Times said. Although Pfizer never did anything with AMB-FUBINACA, the patent was public information and was used by someone to develop the synthetic marijuana. Pfizer’s drug is the root for the synthetic that is sold under different names, including spice, K2, AK-47 and black mamba. The drugs can be found in some stores, but the authorities are attempting to crack down on their sale, but because the drugs are synthetic, makers of the concoctions change the formulas to skirt the laws. The synthetic marijuana developed off the Pfizer drug is 85 times more potent than THC, the active chemical in marijuana.
The Times speculated that the patent for the Pfizer drug was examined in China and developed into the synthetic drug there. As AMB-FUBINACA never underwent human trials, which means the first people the synthetic cannabinoid was tested on were the consumers of the drug. Pfizer’s AMB-FUBINACA is about 50 times more potent than the original synthetic cannabinoids developed at Clemson University in the mid-200s, the Times said.
The synthetic cannabinoids used in the Brooklyn tragedy are unregulated. They are classified as Schedule I controlled substances. Some of the side effects of these drugs include psychosis, delirium, seizures and death, Marketwatch reported, citing a New England Journal of Medicine publication.
Although synthetic cannabinoids like the hijacked AMB-FUBINACA are proving harmful, the synthetics do have legitimate medical uses and the market for drugs based off of synthetic cannabis is growing. In November, business intelligence provider GBI Research noted that several companies had successfully developed synthetic cannabinoids for a variety of indications, including anorexia nervosa related to HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis spasticity, and nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. One company to see approval is Insys Therapeutics . In July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Arizona-based company’s cannabis-based drug, Syndros. The drug, a dronabinol oral solution, was approved for use in treating anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS, and nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy.
