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| Formula | C62H78Cl2N2O14 |
| Molar mass | 1146.21 g·mol−1 |
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BW A444U was an experimentalneuromuscular blocking drug orskeletal muscle relaxant in the category of non-depolarizingneuromuscular-blocking drugs, intended to be used adjunctively in surgicalanesthesia to facilitate endotrachealintubation and to provideskeletal muscle relaxation duringsurgery ormechanical ventilation. It was synthesized and developed in the early 1980s.
BW A444U represented the first-generation oftetrahydroisoquinolineneuromuscular-blocking drugs that arenicotinic acetylcholine receptorantagonists orantinicotinics. It was an intermediate-duration[1] non-depolarizingneuromuscular-blocking drug orskeletal muscle relaxant. It was synthesized by Mary M. Jackson and James C. Wisowaty, PhD (both chemists within the Chemical Development Laboratories atBurroughs Wellcome Co.,Research Triangle Park, NC) in collaboration with John J. Savarese MD (who at the time was an anesthesiologist in the Dept. of Anesthesia,Harvard Medical School at theMassachusetts General Hospital,Boston, MA).
The drug was tested clinically in the early 1980s,[1] and quickly abandoned from further clinical development after a single clinical study, owing primarily to undesirable effects of histamine release when administered at clinically relevant doses.