Sufentanil, sold under the brand names Sufenta among others, is a syntheticopioidanalgesic drug approximately 5 to 10 times as potent as its parent drug, fentanyl, and 500 to 1,000 times as potent as morphine. Structurally, sufentanil differs from fentanyl through the addition of a methoxymethyl group on the piperidine ring (which increases potency but is believed to reduce duration of action[7]), and the replacement of the phenyl ring by thiophene. Sufentanil first was synthesized at Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1974.[8]
^Vucković S, Prostran M, Ivanović M, Dosen-Mićović Lj, Todorović Z, Nesić Z, et al. (2009). "Fentanyl analogs: structure-activity-relationship study". Curr Med Chem. 16 (9): 2468–2474. doi:10.2174/092986709788682074. PMID19601792.
^Niemegeers CJ, Schellekens KH, Van Bever WF, Janssen PA (1976). "Sufentanil, a very potent and extremely safe intravenous morphine-like compound in mice, rats and dogs". Arzneimittel-Forschung. 26 (8): 1551–6. PMID12772.