It is not routinely used due to a higher incidence of adverse effects compared to newer, second-generation sulfonylureas, such as Glibenclamide.

Milton Moskowitz (editor in 1961 of Drug and Cosmetic Industry) claimed that the introduction of Orinase, "expanded the total market by bringing under medical care diabetics who were formerly not treated.

Treatment of this chronic disease was no longer seen as a mere slowing of "inexorable degeneration", but instead viewed through "a model of surveillance and early detection.

"[3]: 84 Orinase and other sulfonylureas emerged from European pharmaceutical research into antibiotics, specifically from attempts to develop sulfa compounds.

The resulting class of drugs for lowering blood sugar came to be known as the sulfonylureas, starting with Orinase and still in use today in other forms.

Unfortunately for diabetics dependent on insulin as a treatment for their condition, this research at Montpellier occurred in the early 1940s and was significantly disrupted by the German occupation of France during World War II.

Development of these compounds was taken over by German pharmaceutical companies, which were obviously disinclined to share their bounty with nations upon which they were waging war.

Just as two German companies brought sulfonylureas to market within the same year, Upjohn discovered Eli Lilly had begun clinical trials for carbutamide, another oral hypoglycemic.

Lilly pulled carbutamide and halted development, leaving the field open for Upjohn to market its new treatment.

Jeremy A. Greene found the application's size – 10,580 pages in 23 volumes with 5,786 cases reports – was necessary to "render visible the relatively small improvements provided in less severe forms of diabetes."

In many cases, patients learned of this before their physicians, and also before FDA could advise relabeling the medication or suggesting alterations in appropriate usage.