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One Blockbuster Drug, Many Uses.
Pharmaceutical companies aren’t mega-moneymakers out of sheer good luck. They know a good deal when it comes along. So when an already researched, developed, safety tested and FDA-approved drug shows signs that it could treat a new ailment, they hop on board. Sometimes the drug companies seem to manufacture these new ailments themselves. Take, for example, “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” which most of us would call really bad PMS. Eli-Lily calls it a disease worthy of Prozac. And then of course there is “social phobia,” or shyness, which GlaxoSmithKline wants to treat with Paxil.
But some of the newfound uses are merely stumbled upon by intelligent accident. Which is both more amusing and less evil than the above examples. Like Viagra. Last week a team of British doctors used the anti-impotence drug to treat a severely premature baby, who was suffering from lung failure and lack of oxygen. The potent bloodflow booster actually saved her life. Now, clinicians in the U.K. are attempting to use Viagra to treat other cardiac patients. Across the pond, doctors at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit are beginning a study to see whether Viagra can aid in the recovery from a stroke, following on from promising results with rat brains.
But Viagra’s benefits on other body parts aren’t as surprising as they might seem. The uplifting nature of the drug was actually an unforeseen side-effect uncovered by Pfizer researchers during safety trials of what was then a high blood pressure and heart disease medication. The safety trials didn’t turn out so well for some cardiac patients, but the erection evidence was so potent that it was retested and approved as an impotence drug.
Other famous drugs of today got their start as something different. Take Zyban, the GlaxoSmithKline drug that helps people quit smoking. The FDA originally approved Zyban – generically called bupropion – in 1989 as an antidepressant under the name Wellbutrin. Again they had some safety problems as people on the drug were at an increased risk of seizures (lower, sustained doses would deal with that later). But the trials also revealed a thrilling side effect – after two weeks, many test subjects reported totally losing their craving for tobacco.
One of today’s most interesting pharmaceutical jacks-of-all-trades is Botox. Botox is a paralyzing neurotoxin produced by scary soil-dwelling bacteria Clostridium botulinum, ruiner of garlic-infused oils and canned foods the world over. Botox was originally approved by the FDA in 1989 to treat chronic spasms of facial and eye muscles (by paralyzing them). Soon after, doctors noticed that in addition to reduced eye twitches, eye wrinkles also diminished. So the company that makes Botox, Allergan, sought a revamped FDA approval in 2002 and started selling cosmetic injections. Today the highly controllable and conveniently localized paralyzing tricks of Botox are being used to treat migraines , menstrual cramps, speech disorders like spasmodic dysphonia, club foot, incontinence, excessive sweating and even obesity. Pretty handy for a poison, eh?
The coming generation of male contraceptive drugs also comes from varied backgrounds. The most promising drug is Adjudin, which interferes with the maturation of sperm. Adjudin just sailed through safety tests in rats and is well on its way to human use. The contraceptive effects were originally spotted by researchers in the 1980s working on a similar molecule called lonidamine, a widely used cancer treatment (lonidamine proved toxic, hence the reformulation). In 1999, fertility specialist Susan Benhoff at New York University found that nifedipine, a treatment for high blood pressure and migraines, could prevent sperm from binding to an egg by messing around with the sperm cell membrane. Lastly there is miglustat, a former contender for the male pill and approved treatment for Gaucher’s Disease - where fatty deposits build up in the lungs, spleen, liver, bone marrow and sometimes brain. Researchers had noted a contraceptive effect on mice during safety trials, but trials in men found no such (in)fertility effect.
Slightly less sexy is aspirin or salicylic acid. Aspirin was isolated in the early 1800s from willow bark, which had been used as a painkiller since the days of Hippocrates in ancient Greece. Today, the drug is used to thin blood and stop clotting, which helps to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Salicylic acid is also widely used in the cosmetics industry to treat acne, dry skin and dandruff because of its natural exfoliation abilities.
Considering that modern-day antibiotics came from someone’s lunch rotting in a Petri dish, I guess pretty much anything is possible. Because other than those evil moments of Big Pharma disease mongering, the multifunctionality of modern drugs really speaks to how little we understand the human body and the effects of the crap we put in it.
