Stephen Dewey may have a cure for addiction. If only, he says, someone would let him prove it. For nearly 10 years, the brain scientist here at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been pushing the federal government and the New Jersey pharmaceutical company that makes the drug vigabatrin to run clinical trials to gauge its addiction-dampening effects. He has found that the drug, made by Aventis, eliminates craving in lab animals. The pharmaceutical industry dreads selling products that could be associated with a socially stigmatized activity, no matter how effective the treatment.
Government authorities are reluctant to tell industry what to do, even in a crisis.
Even when scientists find corporate patrons willing to develop a drug cure for addiction, things often go wrong. With corporate mergers so prevalent today in the drug industry, friendly company liaisons can disappear seemingly overnight, costing scientists years of hard-won goodwill. A promising cocaine vaccine under development by government scientists, for example, has stalled in the past few months because its corporate sponsor was bought out and the new owner is rethinking the firm's corporate strategy. The vaccine project could be dumped. Md. He is director of its division of treatment research and development.