George Rosary

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George Rosenkranz (2013)

George Rosenkranz (born on 20th August 1916 in Budapest as György Rosary , died on 23. June 2019 in Atherton , United States ) was a Mexican chemist and businessman of Hungarian origin. He was the head of Syntex for a long time and played a key role in the company's development of the contraceptive pill and its active ingredient norethisterone .

Life

Rosenkranz came from a Jewish middle-class family in Budapest. From 1933 he studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich , received a diploma as chemical engineer in 1939 and received his doctorate in 1941 under Leopold Ružička . At that time Ružička was working on the synthesis of the male sex hormone testosterone . On the mediation of Ružička he took a job in Ecuador, but got stuck in Cuba after the USA entered the war in 1941. He was working in a laboratory (Vieta-Plasencia Laboratorios) treating STDs when he was invited in 1945 by two of Syntex's founders , Emeric Somlo and Federico Lehmann, to take on the role of Russell Marker , who runs the newly formed company in Mexico -Had left town again. Marker had developed a method of extracting steroids such as progesterone from a natural substance from the yam root . Since Marker had left the company, his synthetic method had to be reconstructed by Rosenkranz and colleagues.

Since he could not find enough trained organic chemists in Mexico at the time, he recruited some of them from abroad. He also taught himself and helped create a chemistry institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico . Among the scientists he was able to win were Carl Djerassi , Luis E. Miramontes and Alejandro Zaffaroni .

One of the first successes was the synthesis of cortisone on the route outlined by Marker. Rosenkranz, Djerassi, and colleagues published it in 1951, shortly before a group from Harvard University and the pharmaceutical company Merck. In the same year Rosenkranz, Djerassi and Miramontes succeeded in synthesizing norethisterone , a synthetic progesterone, which was used in birth control pills to increase fertility and to reduce the risk of miscarriages. Syntex received a US patent in 1956. At first they worked with the pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis, but because they did not want to develop birth control pills for fear of Catholic protests, they worked with Johnson & Johnson in this area. In 1964 it was approved by the FDA (Ortho-Novum with the brand name Norinyl). Parke-Davis brought out a birth control pill in collaboration with Schering in the same year (Anovlar, Norinyl). In 1952 there was competition in this area in the USA when Frank B. Colton synthesized norethisterone-like norethynodrel at the pharmaceutical company GD Searle .

He encouraged his employees to do scientific work in steroid chemistry and was himself involved in around 300 scientific papers and 150 patents.

The Syntex research center later moved to Palo Alto. Rosenkranz was initially technical director (chief scientist) at Syntex, president from 1956, chairman of the board from 1976 and chief executive officer from 1976 to 1980 . In 1981 he retired and gave up the management of Syntex. But he also worked afterwards, for example on the supervisory boards of biotech companies. He was also on the Council of Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute and Rockefeller University .

In 2013 he received the Biotechnology Heritage Award and in 2003 the Winthrop Sears Medal (with Zaffaroni). In Mexico he received the Eduardo Liceaga Medal in 2001 and the Dr. Leopoldo Rio de la Loza . He was an honorary member of the Mexican National Academy of Medicine and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .

Edith and George Rosenkranz, 2004

Rosenkranz played bridge at a high level in international competitions, won a. a. In 1975, 1976 and 1982 the Vanderbilt Trophy (the former partnered with John Mohan ), authored books on bridge and devised the Rosary Double , a convention named after him.

He had been married to Edith Stein since 1945, with whom he had three sons. In 1984, his wife was kidnapped at a bridge tournament in Washington DC; however, she could be freed and the kidnappers were caught. Rosary died on June 23, 2019, aged 102, at his home in Atherton, California .

literature

  • George and Edith Rosenkranz: a memoir of their lives and times, Philadelphia: Science History Consultants, 2011 (autobiography, editor Arnold Thackray)
  • Carl Djerassi : Steroid research at Syntex: "the pill" and cortisone ", Steroids, Vol 57, December 1992, pp 631-641.

Fonts

  • with Djerassi, R. Yashin, J. Pataki: Cortical Hormones from alloSteroids: Synthesis of Cortisone from Reichstein's Compound D , Nature, Volume 168, 1951
  • with Djerassi, L. Miramontes, F. Sondheimer: Steroids. LIV. Synthesis of 19-Nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone and 19-Nor-17α-methyltestosterone, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 76, No. 16, 1954, pp. 4089-4091

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert D. McFadden: George Rosenkranz, a Developer of the Birth Control Pill, Dies at 102. The New York Times , June 23, 2019, accessed the same day. (English)
personal data
SURNAME Rosary, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenkranz, György (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican chemist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 2019
Place of death Atherton , California , United States