1950

Synthesizing of meprobamate by Frank Berger and colleagues at Wallace Laboratories. Small-scale trials began at end of 1951 and confirmed Berger’s monkey trials re reduction of anxiety. But Henry Hoyt, president of Carter Products, parent company of Wallace Laboratories, put the project on hold. It was only released by Wallace as Miltown and by Wyeth (licensee; a division of American Home Products) as Equanil in May 1955 (Tone, 32-52). Wallace Labs was Carter Products’ effort to gain new respectability as a manufacturer of “ethical” drugs (Herzberg, 21, 24-25). It was the product of Frank Berger’s and Wm. Bradley’s search for drugs effective against gram-negative organisms in 1945-1946 (Valenstein, 52-54), which led to synthesis of mephenesin (predecessor of meprobamate) in 1945, released by Squibb in Britain in 1947 and in U.S. in 1948 as Tolserol, used to produce muscle relaxation during light anesthesia, and still used today as a muscle relaxant (Tone, 35-36).