MEDINAL

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The Council has authorized publication of the following report on Medinal (Schering and Glatz, Inc.).

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

Medinal is a proprietary name applied to barbital sodium (sodium diethyl­barbiturate) the sodium salt of barbital (di­ethyl­barbituric acid). The latter was first introduced as Veronal.

Medinal was deleted from New and Non­official Remedies in 1916 because the advertising issued by Schering and Glatz (who then acted as agents for Chemische Fabrik auf Actien vorm. E. Schering, the German manufacturer) contained misleading and unwarranted therapeutic claims. The Council did not publish its report because by the time the report was ready for publication the product was practically off the American market, and it was hoped that when Medinal again became available, Schering and Glatz would revise the claims and thus permit its reacceptance.

Medinal, said to be manufactured in the United States, is now marketed by Schering and Glatz, Inc. In October, 1918, the firm sent to the Council a typewritten copy of a proposed circular for Medinal. The firm was informed that this leaflet was subject to the objections that had been raised when Medinal was deleted from New and Non­official Remedies. In April, 1919, the firm submitted a printed circular which it was sending out. This contained numerous misleading statements, among them, these:

“Medinal removes its [Di­ethyl­barbituric acid] one objectionable feature—insufficient solubility—and thus fulfills the three prerequisites of a truly rational hypnotic: Quick absorption, insuring prompt action, rapid and complete excretion, affording protection from cumulative toxic after effects, and the choice of rectal and subcutaneous administration.”

There is no justification for the claim that diethylbarbituric acid (barbital) has only one objectionable feature and that a minor matter of “insufficient solubility.” The Council has called the attention of Schering and Glatz, Inc., to the fact that the difference in the time of absorption between Medinal (barbital sodium) and barbital is, at the most, but one of minutes and that there is no evidence that Medinal is excreted more rapidly than barbital. Hence the claims that the danger of toxic side-actions and that cumulative after-effects are avoided in this product, are wholly unwarranted.

It is also claimed, and the claim is unsupported by satisfactory evidence, that Medinal is useful in the insomnia of tuberculosis in which condition it is said to have a double advantage owing to its favorable effects on the night-sweats. It is claimed that Medinal is used in the withdrawal treatment of morphin addiction with great success; there is no evidence that Medinal has any special usefulness in this treatment of the morphin habit. It is claimed further that success has been reported with Medinal in the treatment of whooping cough. The Council knows of no satisfactory evidence to show that Medinal is of special value in whooping cough; on the contrary, it is capable of doing a great deal of harm. The recommendations that Medinal be used for the control of labor pains and in acute neuralgic pains that resist other forms of treatment are wholly unwarranted as the value of the drug in such conditions is inherently improbable and until satisfactory evidence in support of them is forthcoming, must be deemed misleading.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 15, 1919)