Elion, Dr. Gertrude

Head, Dept. Experimental Therapy, USA

c.1944-c.1983

2 Items (50 Sub Items)

During 1966 and 1986, the sales of the Wellcome Foundation grew from £32 million to over £500 million. Most of this growth can be put down to the astonishing success of Drs Hitchings and Elion, who worked for over 30 years at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in North Carolina.

During their careers, their drug discoveries (with their brand names) included:
6-mercaptopurine (Purinethol), the first treatment for leukemia.
Azathioprine (Imuran), the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplants.
Allopurinol (Zyloprim), for gout.
Pyrimethamine (Daraprim), for malaria.
Trimethoprim (Septra), for meningitis, septicemia, and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.
Acyclovir (Zovirax), for viral herpes.

This photograph dates from 1988, when they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

As a result of the Wellcome Foundation's huge jump in profits, the Wellcome Trust was able to greatly increase their funding of scientific research during this period.

Copies of some of these images can be found in the MedPhoto database, references:

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