Lloyd Conover
Lloyd Hillyard Conover (born June 13, 1923 in Orange , New Jersey , † March 11, 2017 in St. Petersburg , Florida ) was an American chemist . He is best known for developing tetracycline (1952).
Conover graduated from Amherst College with a bachelor's degree in 1947 and received a PhD in chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1950 . He then worked at the pharmaceutical company Pfizer , where he studied the naturally occurring antibiotics terramycin and aureomycin . In collaboration with Harvard professor Robert B. Woodward , he tried to chemically modify naturally occurring antibiotics so that their effect was optimized. The first product of this kind was the broad spectrum antibiotic tetracycline, which is still used today. In 1955 he received a patent for the drug.
Tetracycline originated as a modification of aureomycin (an antibiotic from the group of tetracyclines produced by Actinomycetales ) discovered in 1945 by Benjamin Minge Duggar (Lederle Laboratories ). Woodward worked with Pfizer chemists in 1950 to determine the chemical structure of the related terramycin, followed by that of aureomycin. By removing the chlorine from aureomycin, Conover developed tetracycline from this. Since other pharmaceutical companies (American Cyanamid) also applied for patents at the time and the companies agreed on mutual licenses and agreements, lengthy lawsuits arose in the USA with the government, which suspected covert price fixing. The government also tried to challenge Pfizer's tetracycline patent, but failed in 1982.
In 1971 he became director of research at Pfizer Central Research in Sandwich (Kent) , which he remained until 1975. He was then Vice President at Pfizer until retirement in 1984.
In 1992 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame . He holds over 300 patents. In 1983 he received the Eli Whitney Award. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Arts .
Web links
- Obituary in the New York Times, March 12, 2017 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Life data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Conover, Lloyd |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Conover, Lloyd Hillyard (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orange , New Jersey , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 11, 2017 |
| Place of death | St. Petersburg , Florida , United States |