When was levothyroxine first made and used to treat underactive thyroid?

[Dottie19]

Levothyroxine

[humanbean]

You might be able to find out what you want to know from this link :

thyroid.org/about-american-...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to humanbean]

Don't know if I am simply missing it, but that document, which in very many ways is good, seems to skip manufacture of levothyroxine (but includes liothyronine!)

Also, loads of entries all through the 19th and 20th centuries - then nothing after 2004.

Obviously the document needs updating but it often feels as if that is how things are. Medicine acts as if everything about thyroid is known. Though we know only too well how far short they fall.

Your next link does better.

[humanbean in reply to helvella]

I probably should have checked it more thoroughly. It was the middle of the night when I posted it, and I wasn't really functioning very well.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to humanbean]

Don't worry at all! I think it is a nicely prepared document - just with a gap or two.

And the James Lind link can easily be read alongside.

[humanbean]

You might find this of interest too :

jameslindlibrary.org/articl...

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Dottie19

From bmcpublichealth.biomedcentr...

Synthetic thyroid hormone replacement therapy has been available since 1927, when British chemists Harington and Barger first synthesised thyroxine[5].

Same date also mentioned on Wikipedia.

I was first prescribed Levothyroxine in 1975 and I understand that I had only just missed out on being prescribed NDT, which was all that was used prior to synthetic Levo being introduced. I don't know the exact date that Levo was first prescribed in favour of NDT but I'm guessing somewhere between the late 1960s and early 1970s. This is applicable to the UK, I have no idea about elsewhere.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to SeasideSusie]

That wording you have accurately quoted is very poor!

Synthesis is a laboratory is one thing. Manufacture in quantity for use as a medicine is another.

From the James Lind link humanbean posted:

Thyroxine was isolated in 1915 (Kendall) (actually, on Christmas Day, 1914), its chemical structure determined in 1926 (Harington), and it was synthesised in 1927 (Harington and Barger). However, it took a long time before it was synthesized on a commercial basis. At first, 3 tons of pigs’ thyroids were needed to isolate just 33 grams of pure thyroxine. Even when thyroxine became commercially available from Glaxo in 1949, tablets of desiccated thyroid extract remained the principle source of treatment for many years.

jameslindlibrary.org/articl...

[Dottie19 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Ah yes- my understanding was that levothyroxine was first available in the 70sThank you 🌸

Unfortunately I seem to be allergic to it ( swollen lips and eyes and skin ) but having an awful time getting an alternative from GP and NHS !

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Dottie19]

Dottie19

Have you tried different brands? Maybe it's the fillers causing the problem.