An unnamed businessman has donated €500,000 to the University of Amsterdam for research into baclofen, a drug which some claim can be used to treat addiction, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The drug, mainly used to treat spasticity, hit the headlines in 2004 after a French cardiologist Olivier Ameisen said large doses had cured him of alcoholism.
There has not yet been any proper research into the effect of baclofen on addiction because the patent expired years ago, professor Reinout Wiers told the paper. ‘There is nothing in it for the pharmaceutical companies.’
The paper does not give any more details about the research.