Travois Page 8 (eight)

Medicine introduced in 1988

Prozac is introduced in January by Eli Lily, whose Illinois-born biochemist Ray W. Fuller, now 52, synthesized the drug fluoxetine hydrochloride 15 years ago. It slows the reabsorption of serotonin in the brain. Bryan B. Molloy and Klaus K. Schmiegel have developed the antidepressant drug, it gained approval for marketing in Belgium 2 years ago, and it received FDA approval December 29 of last year despite questions as to whether it was any more effective than a placebo; Lily claims it has no adverse side effects (but see crime, 1989), U.S. pharmacies will be filling 65,000 prescriptions for Prozac per month within 2 years, 4.5 million Americans will have taken it by the end of 1991, it will be generating $1 billion per year in revenue for Lily, and by the end of the century more than 40 million people will be using it in 90 countries, along with comparable medications such as Paxil and Zoloft.