SCIENTISTS need to develop new antidotes to prepare for possible terrorist
chemical attacks in the West, researchers urged today.
The antidotes are also needed to tackle pesticide poisoning in developing
countries where it is a leading cause of premature death, according to the
study in the British Medical Journal.
But despite the severity of the situation, neither the pharmaceutical industry
nor the military have attempted to test new remedies to deal with the danger
from organophosphates, according to experts from Canberra Hospital in Australia.
Organophosphates are used in some pesticides, but have also been used in
chemical weapons and nerve gas attacks, such as the sarin attack in Japan.
But despite the concerns, no new antidotes have been tested in clinical trials
in the last 30 years.
The current treatment involves giving victims atropine and benzodiazepines,
but these are only moderately effective.
"Newer, more effective antidotes are needed," the researchers said.
"The currently recommended antidotes are the tip of a therapeutic iceberg
that could be mobilised."
The researchers said animal studies had revealed the potential for new treatments.
"Information on these potential treatments has been available for years,
but neither the military nor the pharmaceutical industry has attempted to
test them or develop new drugs," they said.
The researchers pointed out that every year hundreds of thousands of people
were dying from pesticide poisoning in the world's poorest countries.
"The pharmaceutical industry has little incentive to develop new drugs for
use primarily in developing countries.
"However, on humanitarian grounds alone, research into organophosphate pesticide
poisoning in developing countries should become an international priority,"
the researchers added.
They also said that given government concerns about having the means to respond
to victims of chemical warfare and terrorist attacks "the time is ripe to
break this drug development impasse".