Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A glass ampoule contains a 2 ml testing sample of intravenous fentanyl. The ampoule has a tan label with black printing. The neck of the ampoule is marked with a gold band.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.65
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Glass
The label text includes the following information:
Height = 5.2, Width = 1.2, Length = 1.2.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic first synthesized in 1960. It was first developed for intravenous administration, as in this sample.
Within the context of pediatric medicine, it was commonly used as in cardiac surgery. In such cases, conventional anesthetic techniques risked “severe hypotension and arrhythmias and often cardiac arrest”. The administration of intravenous opioids contributed to anesthesia with stable cardiovascular dynamics (see Stanley 2014, 1219).
This item is intact and unopened. The label my be slightly discoloured from an original white.
Associated Instruments:
McNeil Laboratories Canada, Ltd., 11 Green Belt Dr, Don Mills (Toronto), Canada.
Date of Manufacture: c. 1960s – 1970s
Provenance:
Statistics Canada. Manufacturing and Primary Industries Division. Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medicines. Digitized publications covering 1960-1980. (Archived 14 August 2022).
Paul R. Hickey and Dolly D. Hansen (1984) “Fentanyl-and Sufentanil-Oxygen-Pancuronium Anesthesia for Cardiac Surgery in Infants.” Anesthesia and Analgesia 63, 2: 117–24.
Theodore H. Stanley, Talmage D Egan, and Hugo Van Aken (2008). “A Tribute to Dr. Paul A. J. Janssen: Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, Innovative Scientist, and Significant Contributor to Anesthesiology.” Anesthesia and Analgesia 106, 2: 451–62.
Theodore H. Stanley (2014) “The Fentanyl Story.” The Journal of Pain 15, no. 12 (2014): 1215–26.
Fentanyl was first synthesized in 1960 by Janssen Research Laboratories of Belgium. Janssen Research Laboratories was founded in 1953 with the goal of developing more effective analgesics based on the chemical structures of existing opioid painkillers morphine and meperidine. Fentanyl was found to be between 100 and 200 times more powerful than morphine (see Stanley 2014).
In 1961 Janssen Research Laboratories was purchased by the American corporation Johnson & Johnson.
Fentanyl was approved for intravenous administration in various Western European countries 1963, and was approved by the FDA in the United States in 1967. Fentanyl was marketed as Sublimaze in the United States by McNeil Laboratories, then also a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
Hickey and Hansen 1984 noted that, around that time, “The use of fentanyl anesthesia for cardiac surgery is spreading into pediatric practice.” This sample from the Hospital for Sick Children may be related to that process.
McNeil Laboratories (Canada) at Don Mills
McNeil Laboratories Ltd. was an American corporation that developed research and production facilities in Philadelphia, PA over the early decades of the 20th century. The company notably developed the acetaminophen-based non-prescription analgesic Tylenol that was introduced in the 1950s. In 1959, McNeil Laboratories was acquired by Johnson & Johnson.
McNeil Laboratories, (Canada) Ltd., with production facilities located at 11 Green Belt Dr.. Don Mills (Toronto), first appeared in Statistics Canada’s annual census of manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medicines in 1965 (See Statistics Canada Manufacturers…).
The naming and role of the Don Mills site within Johnson & Johnson is opaque. A better understanding of that history would help to date and contextualize this sample.