Major Accomplishments
Other Drugs
The history of Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. is a history of innovation.
From its earliest years the company set the standard in the relief of pain and inflammation. In the early 1900s, Charles E. Frosst & Co. developed an analgesic that would remain popular for most of the century. Tablet 217® (ASA + caffeine), so-called because it was the 217th item listed in the tablet section of the company's catalogue, was the first medication to combine acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and caffeine to 
Click here to enlarge provide more effective relief of headaches and muscle pain. A year later, codeine was added to produce tablet 222® (ASA + caffeine + codeine), a formulation that was quickly copied world wide and continues to be copied to this day. These medications were followed in later years by 282® (ASA + caffeine + codeine), 282 MEP® (ASA + caffeine + codeine + meprobamate), 292® (ASA + caffeine + codeine) and 294® (ASA + caffeine + codeine), prescription drugs with potent pain-relief properties.
In 1966, Dr. "B.K." Wasson, a legendary researcher at the Merck Frosst laboratories, discovered timolol maleate-the first beta-adrenergic blocking agent ("beta-blocker") to be discovered in Canada. BLOCADREN® (timolol maleate) was approved in Canada in July 1977 for angina and in 1979 for hypertension.
(N.B. BLOCADREN® has been discontinued in Canada and is no longer available due to newer, more effective medications).
Several years later, Merck scientists in Europe discovered that topical application of timolol maleate on the eyes may relieve elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), and TIMOPTIC® (timolol maleate) for treatment of glaucoma was born. Approved in Canada in 1978, TIMOPTIC® was the first such treatment to have been discovered in decades.
Also approved in 1978 was FLEXERIL® (cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride), a valuable muscle relaxant developed in the Merck Frosst Canada laboratories in the 1960s 
Click here to enlarge and 70s.FLEXERIL® arose out of the discovery that a compound called cyclobenzaprine, synthesized a decade earlier by Merck scientists in the U.S. in their search for a psychiatric medication, was exceptionally effective in relieving muscle spasms, despite its ineffectiveness at the psychiatric level. The discovery and development of FLEXERIL® illustrates dramatically the benefits of international cooperation among the Merck research community.
®Registered Trademark of Merck & Co., Inc. Used under license.
222® is a trademark of Johnson & Johnson/Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals
217®, 282®, 292®, 282 MEP® are trademarks of Laboratoire International Onil Herbert Inc.
Information and things to do in Montreal
Click here
