What is "carfentanil"

alt. (context pharmaceutical drug English) A particular narcotic painkiller. n. (context pharmaceutical drug English) A particular narcotic painkiller.

Carfentanil or carfentanyl (Wildnil) is an analog of the synthetic opioid analgesic fentanyl. It is one of the most potent opioids known and the most potent used commercially. Carfentanil was first synthesized in 1974 by a team of chemists at Janssen Pharmaceutica which included Paul Janssen. It has a quantitative potency approximately 10,000 times that of morphine and 100 times that of fentanyl, with activity in humans starting at about 1 microgram. It is marketed under the trade name Wildnil as a general anaesthetic agent for large animals. Carfentanil is intended for large-animal use only as its extreme potency makes it inappropriate for use in humans. Currently sufentanil, approximately 0.05-0.1 times as potent (500 to 1000 times the efficacy of morphine per weight) than carfentanil, is the maximum strength fentanyl analog for use in humans.

Side effects of fentanyl analogs are similar to those of fentanyl itself, which include itching, nausea and potentially serious respiratory depression, which can be life-threatening. Fentanyl analogs have killed hundreds of people throughout Europe and the former Soviet republics since the most recent resurgence in use began in Estonia in the early 2000s, and novel derivatives continue to appear.

Carfentanil is a Schedule II Narcotic controlled substance in the United States with a DEA ACSCN of 9743 and a 2015 annual aggregate manufacturing quota of 19 grams, unchanged from the prior year.