Burimamide is an antagonist

Receptor antagonist

A receptor antagonist is a type of receptor ligand or drug that does not provoke a biological response itself upon binding to a receptor, but blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses...

 at the H₂ and H₃ histamine

Histamine

Histamine is an organic nitrogen compound involved in local immune responses as well as regulating physiological function in the gut and acting as a neurotransmitter. Histamine triggers the inflammatory response. As part of an immune response to foreign pathogens, histamine is produced by...

 receptors

Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...

. It is largely inactive as an H₂ antagonist at physiological pH, but its H₃ affinity is 100x higher. It is a thiourea

Thiourea

Thiourea is an organosulfur compound of with the formula SC2 . It is structurally similar to urea, except that the oxygen atom is replaced by a sulfur atom, but the properties of urea and thiourea differ significantly. Thiourea is a reagent in organic synthesis. "Thioureas" refers to a broad...

 derivative.

Burimamide was first developed by scientists at Smith, Kline & French (SK&F; now GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

) in their intent to develop a histamine antagonist for the treatment of peptic ulcers. The discovery of buriamide ultimately led to the development of cimetidine

Cimetidine

Cimetidine INN is a histamine H2-receptor antagonist that inhibits the production of acid in the stomach. It is largely used in the treatment of heartburn and peptic ulcers. It is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline under the trade name Tagamet...

(Tagamet).