from the formulation in 1976 after Merrell determined that it added no value. Bendectin became the subject of many lawsuits due to allegations that it had caused birth defects similar to thalidomide, which Merrell had also marketed in the US and Canada. In the mid-1980s several governments restricted its use in infants due to reports of convulsions, difficult breathing, irritability, and restlessness in infants given the drug. In 1994 the US Federal Trade Commission ordered Marion Merrell Dow, which had recently acquired Rugby Darby, the only generic manufacturer of dicycloverine in the US, to promise to grant licenses to its intellectual property on the drug to any company that wanted it, based on antitrust concerns. The US market for the drug at that time was around $8 million; Dow had 60% of it and Rugby had 40%. The next year, Hoechst Marion Roussel, which by that time had acquired the business, granted a license to Endo Pharmaceuticals. By 2000 several other generic competitors had started selling the drug. The case was part of the reshaping of the US pharmaceutical market that occurred in the 1990s, to favor generic entry. Society and culture Although rarely, there have been reports of dicycloverine abuse. Dicycloverine is an antagonist at sigma-1 and 5-HT2A receptor sites, though its affinities for these targets are roughly one-fifth to one-tenth as strong as its affinities for CHRM1 and CHRM4 (its clinical targets). It is also a relatively non-polar tertiary amine, able to cross the blood-brain barrier, leading to delirium at high concentrations. References External links Diethylamino compounds Antispasmodics Carboxylate esters Cyclohexanecarboxylic acids Muscarinic antagonists Wikipedia medicine articles ready to translate