Origins Of A Drug

I read with interest the article about HEC Pharm, in particular where it says that HEC “has obtained regulatory approval to start clinical trials in China for morphothiadine mesilate, a treatment for hepatitis B virus that was discovered, and later dropped, by Bayer” (C&EN, Feb. 27, page 32).

I am a German chemist who worked for Bayer for 25 years. Now I am a consultant with HEC. I introduced this particular drug project to the company. It is not true that the drug was discovered and developed by Bayer and later dropped. Morphothiadine mesilate was synthesized in China. It is a new compound protected by new patents. At Bayer, this compound was never synthesized. The misunderstanding could be that the new concept to fight the hepatitis B virus using this approach is originally from Bayer. But the drug itself is not from Bayer.

By Siegfried Goldmann
Wuppertal, Germany