Syntex

Laboratorios Syntex SA was a pharmaceutical company that Russell Earl Marker co-founded in Mexico City in 1944 to produce therapeutic steroids ( progesterone , cortisone , oxymetholone ) from Mexican yam . Syntex was completely taken over and integrated by the Roche Group in 1994 .

Researcher

Scientists who researched there during the company's existence included:

• Russell Earl marker. He left the company in 1945 and took his progesterone notebooks with him in an argument about finances and financial compensation.
• George Rosary . He had studied at the ETH Zurich and in 1945 applied to Syntex from Cuba, where he became chief scientist. He came to Syntex to replace Marker and hired Djerassi. He was CEO of Syntex until 1981.
• Carl Djerassi . He joined Syntex in 1949 as the Associate Director of Chemical Research. He oversaw the first synthesis of norethindrone , the first orally active progestin , which led to the development of one of the first oral contraceptives .
• Luis E. Miramontes . He joined Syntex in 1950 from UNAM as a researcher under the direction of Djerassi. He succeeded in the first synthesis of an orally active progestin ( October 15, 1951 ). This steroid was alpha-ethynyl testosterone, with the generic name norethisterone or norethindrone, which led to the development of some of the first oral contraceptives.

birth control pills

Syntex initiated pharmacological and pharmakinetic clinical studies of norethindrone in Madison , Wisconsin . It turned out to be the most active, orally administered progesterone of its time. Syntex submitted this invention for patenting in November 1951. In August 1953, GD Searle and Company Laboratories , one of the competitors, filed a patent application for the synthesis of norethynodrel, a norethindrone isomer. The synthesis took place under acidic conditions and thus does not infringe Syntex's patent.

Searle received her patent before Syntex. By 1964, three companies, including Syntex, shared the market for birth control pills .

successor

Syntex Pharm AG

Syntex Pharm AG (Syntex Pharm Ltd, Syntex Pharm SA), based at Roche Diagnostics International AG in Steinhausen , ZG, is a sales company for pharmaceutical products.

literature

• Carl Djerassi: Steroids Made It Possible , American Chemical Society, Washington DC, 1990.
• R. Edgren: Early oral contraceptive history: Norethynodrel is not a prohormone . In: Steroids . tape 59 , no. 1 , 1994, p. 58 , doi : 10.1016 / 0039-128X (94) 90047-7 .
• Carl Djerassi: This Man's Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill , Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Lara V. Marks : Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill , Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 2001.
• Max F. Perutz : I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists, and Humanity , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1997.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry of "Syntex Pharm AG" in the commercial register of the canton of Zug ( memento of the original dated January 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.