[Mydeton: a centrally acting muscle relaxant drug from Gedeon Richter LTD]

Since its introduction in 1959 tolperisone hydrochloride (Mydeton) is still one of the leading products of Gedeon Richter Ltd. It has been successfully applied for treating different painful muscle spasms. The compound is successfully marketed also by several foreign, mostly Japanese, pharmaceutical companies, as a central muscle relaxant agent. The present summary overviews the pharmacology of tolperisone, with special emphasize on its still partly understood way of action. Data from the scientific literature as well as our own experimental results strongly support the hypothesis that inhibition of voltage gated sodium channels is a major component of the mechanism of action of tolperisone. The paper also summarizes the clinical results with tolperisone and the perspectives of the therapeutic use of centrally acting muscle relaxants.