List of aminorex analogues

This is a list of aminorex analogues. Aminorex itself is a stimulant drug with a 5-phenyl-2-amino-oxazoline structure. It was developed in the 1960s as an anorectic,[1][2][3] but withdrawn from sale after it was discovered that extended use produced pulmonary hypertension, often followed by heart failure, which resulted in a number of deaths.[4] A designer drug analogue 4-methylaminorex appeared on the illicit market in the late 1980s but did not attract significant popularity due to its steep dose-response curve and tendency to produce seizures.[5][6][7][8] Pemoline, the 4-keto derivative of aminorex, had been discovered several years earlier,[9] and derivatives of this type appeared to be effective stimulants with comparatively low toxicity.[10][11] Pemoline was sold for around 25 years as a therapy for ADHD and relief of fatigue, before being withdrawn from the market in 2005 because of rare but serious cases of liver failure.[12][13][14][15] More recently in around 2014 another derivative 4,4'-dimethylaminorex started to be sold illicitly, but again swiftly lost popularity due to a spate of fatal overdose cases.[16][17][18] A number of related compounds are known, and new derivatives have continued to appear on the designer drug market.[19][20][21][22][23][24]