DCAT by the Decades Vol 3

CONTENTS ISSUE 03

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First Member Outing - DCAT provides new business development opportunities for members

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DCAT’s Industry Impact

- Supports enactment of the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act - Celebrates 50 years of service in 1940

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- The anitbiotic Prontosil is launched; Gerhard Domagk awarded Nobel Prize - Anesthetic Sodium Thiopental introduced - Large-scale production of vitamins advances - The Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938 becomes law

1940-1950: Pharma Companies Step Up Mass Production of Penicillin - The antibiotic Streptomycin is discovered - First breakthrough in rheumatoid arthritis treatment

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DCAT’s Past Presidents

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DCAT’s Executive Secretaries

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1930-1940: Regulatory Change & Scientific Breakthroughs

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FIRST MEMBER OUTING DCAT Provides New Business Development Opportunities for Members

The first Fall Annual Meeting was held at Skytop Lodge in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1936.

After finding a successful formula for business development with the creation of the DCAT Annual Dinner in 1926, the executive board wanted to provide even more opportunities for its members to get to know each other on a face to face basis. Thus, they transformed their Annual Meeting into a comprehensive weekend, where members could cultivate business relationships and attend education seminars by prominent industry speakers.

The first “Fall Annual Meeting” was held on October 23-24, 1936 at the Skytop Lodge located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

The executive board believed this member outing would “grow into an Annual Meeting of importance” in which it would “only be a matter of time before becoming a national get together and drawing as large an attendance as that of any other major association.” They were right.

Approximately 80 people attended the first Fall Annual Meeting. It was declared a success by the executive committee and all who participated. The following month at the executive meeting, there was a unanimous vote to continue these important member outings. The tradition continued well into the 1990s, spanning seven decades of fostering business development.

As the industry became more global, members no longer had the time in their busy travel schedules to devote three days to attend a membership outing. In response, the organization developed a one-day education and business development program (now known as DCAT’s Sharp Sourcing) which is held in conjunction with the Annual Membership Meeting. >>

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Photos from Fall Annual Meetings 1936-1950

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DCAT’S INDUSTRY IMPACT DCAT was originally known as the Drug Trade Section of the New York Board of Trade (NYBT) and operated from its headquarters in New York City. In January of 1921, the name changed to include the growing chemical industry, making it the Drug and Chemical Section of the NYBT. The name expanded again in 1930 to become the Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Section, still under the auspices of the New York Board of Trade.

In its first few decades of service, the organization was active in the legislative arena for the pharmaceutical industry as you will see below. But as our membership grew to include large and small companies, distributors, and packagers of pharmaceuticals, and even transportation companies, it could not represent the specific specialized legislative interests of its member companies the way that other associations could.

Recognizing our core strength in bringing such a large group of interests together, we later changed our focus to business development amongst members.

• 1932 The Organization Publishes First Annual Report and it is “Splendid” Percy Magnus, chairman of the organization (title changed to President in 1959), sends members, prospective members, and other industry associations the 1931 Annual Report of the Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Section* of the New York Board of Trade. In his letter addressed to members, he states “it is our belief that the Section is the largest and most representative local organization of its kind in any city in the country…” *Unfortunately, the DCAT staff could not find this extensive report in our history archives. However, based on the letters of correspondence we do have, we know it must have been one impressive report.

• 1933 Election of DCAT Officers Changed to November Read the executive minutes from March 24, 1933 in which the Executive Committee discusses changing the election of officers from January to November. This was decided “due to the length of time necessary to make arrangements for the Annual Dinner.”

DCAT’s current executive committee and staff can certainly attest to this and are grateful for this change! >>

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• 1935 Supports Enactment of the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (Pictured Left)

Read the minutes from March 7, 1935 in which the executive committee takes an affirmative position for the enactment of the “food-drug and cosmetic legislation at this session of Congress for the proper safeguard and protection of the public and of a character not to impose an undue hardship upon legitimate industry.”

This seminal legislation passed in 1938 and gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to oversee the safety of food, drugs and cosmetics. It replaced the earlier Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

• 1940 “Conscientious, sincere and enthusiastic support” DCAT’s Chairman, Ralph E. Dorland, writes a reflection of the year to the officers and members of the organization, citing the association’s success during the year and of its strongly supported position in the industry.

• 1940 Busy Year for DCAT’s Legislative Committee Read a full recap of DCAT’s Annual Legislative Committee Report, which includes establishing a new Sanitary Code as it related to food and drugs in the city of New York.

• 1946 Celebrates 20 Years of DCAT Annual Dinners The DCAT organization reflects on the beginning of these “friendship forums” as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of bringing industry representatives together for the DCAT Annual Dinner. So what’s on the menu in 1946?

• 1949 Writes 5th Revision for New York’s Official Tares DCAT’s Tares Committee updates the Official Tares for the state of New York. The first Official Tares were established by DCAT in April 1893. Thereafter, there were revisions in 1898, 1924 and 1930. Click to read the Official Tares.

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1930 - 1940 Regulatory Change & Scientific Breakthroughs The decade of the 1930s is marked by the passage of a seminal piece of legislation, the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938, which specifies new requirements to ensure the safety of drugs. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies turn to leading scientists, several of whom would later become Nobel Prize Laureates, to achieve key breakthroughs: large-scale industrial production of vitamins, the development of drugs to treat anemia, infections, and respiratory disease, as well as new anesthetics.

INDUSTRY TIMELINE

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1931

Bayer launches Alka Seltzer, an over-the-counter product to treat heartburn and acid-related stomach problems, a product that is still on the market today.

1931

Baxter is founded as the first manufacturer of commercially prepared intravenous (IV) solutions.

1933

The name of the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration is shortened to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under an agricultural appropriations act. Three years later in 1933, the FDA recommends a complete revision of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The first bill is introduced into the US Senate, launching what would become a five-year legislative battle until passage of the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938.

1934

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1934 is awarded jointly to George Hoyt Whipple of the University of Rochester, and two Harvard University professors, George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy, for their discoveries concerning liver therapy against anemia. Eli Lilly forms a research collaboration with Minot and Murphy that results in the development of a liver extract to treat pernicious anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder.

1935

Working together with Fritz Mietzsch and Joseph Klarer, Bayer researcher Gerhard Domagk discovered the therapeutic effect of sulfonamides, with one active ingredient from this class of substances being launched in 1935 as the antibacterial drug Prontosil, a key breakthrough in the chemotherapy of infectious diseases and one of the first commercially available antibiotics. Domagk would later be recognized for this accomplishment with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939. His later research would contribute to the discovery of isoniazid, a drug to treat tuberculosis. >>

1935

To overcome drug shortages caused by declining drug imports from Europe, Salomon, Levin and Elstein, who had earlier started a drug-import business to support local markets, purchased land in Petach Tikva, Israel, and in 1935 opened a small drug factory named “Assia.” Additional drug factories were launched at around the same time: Zori in Tel Aviv, and Teva, founded by Dr. Gunter Friedlander, in Jerusalem.

1936

Abbott introduces Pentothal (sodium thiopental), which will become the most widely used induction anesthetic in the world for more than 50 years.

1936

C.H. Boehringer Sohn begins work on the large-scale industrial synthesis of Lobelin, which is later launched as the respiratory stimulant Lobeton. The pure alkaloid lobelin had been earlier isolated from the Lobelia inflata plant by Heinrich Wieland and his pharmacologist brother Hermann Wieland and launched as a product under its scientific name in 1921. Heinrich Wieland, who advanced the understanding of the chemistry of natural products and organic nitrogenous compounds, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1927 for his work on the constitution of bile acids and related substances.

1936-1939

Pharmaceutical companies advance synthetic and large-scale production of vitamins.

In 1936, Dr. Richard Pasternack with Pfizer develops a fermentation-free method for producing ascorbic acid, vitamin C. After building a new plant and initiating a 24-houra-day, seven-day-a-week production schedule, Pfizer becomes a leading producer of vitamin C. Pfizer pushes ahead in 1938 with production of vitamin B-2, or riboflavin, and eventually develops a vitamin mix that includes riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, and iron. From vitamin B-12, the company moves on to vitamin A, and by the late 1940s, Pfizer would become a leading manufacturer of vitamins. Also in 1936, Merck & Co. chemist J.K. Cline, together, with Bell Labs scientist Robert Williams, develop a synthesis of vitamin B1. Within a few years, it would constitute more than 10% of Merck’s sales. Roche, too, advances industrial production of vitamins, including vitamin A, B1, B2, E, and K1.

In 1939, Roche acquires the Reichstein process for synthesizing vitamin C, named after its developer, Tadeusz Reichstein, and begins to scale up for mass production.

Reichstein later is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950, along with E.C. Kendall and P.S. Hench, for their work on hormones of the adrenal cortex which culminated in the isolation of cortisone. One year later in 1940, Bayer launches One-A-Day Vitamins, one of the first multivitamin products in the US.

1937

Johnson & Johnson expands to Argentina and Brazil following earlier expansions in Mexico (1930) and Australia (1931). Ortho Research Laboratories is established in Linden, New Jersey, to make women’s health products.

1938

The postwar depression prompted Bristol-Myers to jettison its pharmaceutical business and devote itself entirely to its specialties: Sal Hepatica and Ipana, and a dozen or so assorted toiletries, antiseptics and cough syrups. Company headquarters were established in Manhattan and, having shifted squarely into the consumer products arena, Bristol-Myers began advertising its products, such as Vitalis hair tonic for men, and Mum, an underarm deodorant, directly to the public. Separately, in 1938, The Squibb Institute for Medical Research is established in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with a focus on pharmaceutical research, which would include advancements in antibiotics. >>

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1938

The Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) of 1938 is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt, firmly putting into place the FDA’s regulatory and oversight functions. The new law required that drugs be labeled with adequate directions for safe use and mandated pre-market approval of all new drugs, such that a manufacturer would have to prove to the FDA that a drug was safe before it could be sold. It also prohibited false therapeutic claims for drugs although a separate law granted the Federal Trade Commission jurisdiction over drug advertising. Tolerances for certain poisonous substances were addressed. The law formally authorized factory inspections, and it added injunctions to the enforcement tools at the agency’s disposal.

1939

Pfizer succeeds so well in the production of citric acid by fermenting sugar that a pound of citric acid, which had cost $1.25 in 1919, falls to 20 cents, and Pfizer advances its position in fermentation technology.

1939

Baxter Laboratories introduced the Transfuso-Vac container, the first sterile, vacuumtype blood collection and storage unit. Before this product, blood could be stored for only a few hours; the new container allowed storage for up to 21 days, making blood banking practical for the first time.

1940 - 1950 The Decade of Mass Production of Penicillin The decade of the 1940s is highlighted by pharmaceutical companies rising to the challenge of achieving mass production of penicillin, a critical achievement in bringing this life-saving antibiotic to soldiers on the battlefield as well as to the world as a whole.

Another breakthrough, the discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis, was made through collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry.

INDUSTRY TIMELINE

1940 1941-1943

The FDA is transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Federal Security Agency, with Walter G. Campbell appointed as the first Commissioner of Food and Drugs World War II creates demand for new medicines, and with it, one of the most important contributions by the pharmaceutical industry: the mass production of penicillin. The groundbreaking discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928, was recognized in 1945, when he and British scientists Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey, who had headed a team to successfully produce penicillin on small scale, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The baton for this life-saving antibiotic was passed to the pharmaceutical industry to find a way to mass produce penicillin.

Tasked by the US government to increase penicillin production during WW II, pharmaceutical companies rose to the challenge by developing new technologies to scale up production and enable mass production of penicillin. Pfizer, Merck & Co., Squibb, Abbott, and Eli Lilly were among the companies contributing to this goal.

In 1941, Pfizer buys the equipment and facilities, including a nearby vacant ice plant that is converted to produce penicillin, for mass production of penicillin. In just four months, Pfizer is producing five times more penicillin than it originally anticipated. By 1944, using deep-tank fermentation, Pfizer becomes one of the leading producers of penicillin. In 1940, Squibb obtained cultures of Penicillium notatum from the United Kingdom and developed deep-tank fermentation processes for the production of penicillin. By 1943, Squibb was producing penicillin in 15,000-gallon tanks in its New Brunswick, New Jersey facility, making it one the largest penicillin production plants in the world at the time.

In 1943, Bristol-Myers bought Cheplin Laboratories—a Syracuse, New York, manufacturer of acidophilus milk—and broke ground for a new penicillin plant. Cheplin was renamed Bristol Laboratories in 1945. In 1942, Merck & Co. begins producing penicillin G, and one of the first vials is shipped to New Haven, Connecticut, to treat a young woman, named Anne Miller, marking the first successful penicillin treatment for blood infection in the United States; Merck & Co. also develops a submerged fermentation process for producing penicillin, enabling the company to produce 4.18 billion units. >>

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1941

C.H. Boehringer Sohn introduces the broncholytic drug Aludrin, breaking ground in the treatment of asthma. This respiratory agent would later pave the wave for betablockers.

1944

Dr. Selman Waksman of Rutgers University and his colleague Albert Schatz discover the antibiotic streptomycin. Waksman had received support from Merck & Co., including Merck’s chemists, use of the testing facilities at the Merck Institute, and assurance that pilot plant facilities would be available for producing substances. In exchange, Merck received patent rights to any processes Dr. Waksman developed. Later, at the request of Dr. Waksman, who was concerned that he had turned over valuable publichealth processes to a single organization, asked Merck to abandon these patent rights, which the company did, turning the patents over to a Rutgers foundation, which licensed all applicants to produce the drug. In 1952, Waksman is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis.

1944

After two years of intensive research, Merck & Co. chemist Dr. Lewis Sarett synthesizes cortisone, however, not in quantities sufficient for testing. Dr. Max Tishler, aided by Dr. Jacob van de Kamp, spends the next two years solving the developmental puzzles of cortisone manufacturing, and in 1948 with cortisone in pilot plant production, they were able to make amounts sufficient for the tests that established the drug as the first breakthrough in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

1944

The Federal Public Health Service Act is passed, covering a broad spectrum of health concerns, including regulation of biological products and control of communicable diseases.

1944

Dr. Philip Levine, the discoverer of the human rH factor, joins Ortho Research Laboratories, creating the beginnings of Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide diagnostics business. His research contributed to the understanding of Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn ( HDN), a condition in which women with Rh-negative blood who had given birth to a healthy first child lost later babies to this condition. Dr. Levine’s research with Dr. R. E. Stetson demonstrated that HDN is caused by antibodies in the mother’s blood that were incompatible with the baby’s. In 1968, Levine’s research, combined with the work of others, led to the development of RhoGAM, the first Rh Immunoglobulin product to treat HDN.

1946

Nordisk develops isophane insulin (NPH), a neutral insulin with prolonged action. One year later in 1947, Penicillin Novo is launched, Novo’s first product to be manufactured through fermentation.

1947

Plough Inc. introduces St. Joseph Aspirin for Children. >>

1948

Schering Corporation’s antihistamine, Trimeton, the result of experiments to produce an analgesic, is launched, and is the predecessor of the antihistamine Chlor-Trimenton (chlorpheniramine maleate), which is launched in 1949.

1949

As the mid-point of the 20th century nears, Pfizer celebrates its 100th anniversary.

1949

Vitamin B12 is introduced as a treatment for pernicious anemia following the work of Merck & Co. researcher Karl Folkers and his team, who had isolated Vitamin B12 after nearly nine years of research.

1949

The anti-rheumatic drug Butazolidin (phenylbutazone) becomes the first major pharmaceutical for Geigy.

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DCAT’s Past Presidents 1930 - 1950

This list of DCAT’s presidents reads like a “Who’s Who” of the drug trade, as all of these men were very active in the advancement of their respected companies and the industry.

If you get a chance, we recommend a quick Google search of these names – it’s amazing what you can find!

1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

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Charles A. Prickett, Upjohn Company Percy C. Magnus, Magnus, Mabee & Reynard, Inc. Percy C. Magnus, Magnus, Mabee & Reynard, Inc. Francis J. McDonough, New York Quinine & Chemical Company

S.W. Fraser, Burroughs, Welcome & Co. Herman G. Weicker, Dodge & Olcott Company James C. Chilcott, Maltine Co. Joseph A. Huisking, Fritzsche Brothers, Inc. Philip M. Dinkins, American Cyanamid Company William D. Barry, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works

1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947

Ralph E. Dorland, Dow Chemical John J. Toohy, E. R. Squibb & Sons S. Barksdale Penick, Jr., S. B. Penick & Co. Victor E. Williams, Monsanto Chemical Co. E.T.T. Williams, Lambert Company Guy L. Marsters, Norwich Pharmacal Company Harold M. Altshul, Ketchum & Company Dr. Carle M. Bigelow, American Cyanamid Company

1948 1949

Fred J. Stock, Charles Pfizer & Company, Inc.

1950

Harold C. Green, L. Sonneborn & Sons, Inc.

Robert B. Magnus, Sr., Magnus, Mabee & Reynard, Inc.

DCAT’s Executive Secretary DCAT’s executive secretaries are a very integral part in the success of the organization.

Between 1930 and 1950, three bright, hardworking individuals assumed the duties of executive secretary to the Drug, Chemical & Allied Trades Association. After the passing of longtime executive secretary, William F. McConnell, who served from the organization’s inception in 1890 to 1930, there were very big shoes to fill.

Stepping up to the plate was Ray C. Schlotterer. Mr. Schlotterer performed dutifully from 1930 until 1940, when he left to become executive secretary of the Federal Wholesale Druggists Association.

Next up was John C. Ostrom who was an asset to the organization until he resigned in 1943 to join the United States Navy.

Helen L. Booth had been a member of the DCAT staff since 1928. When Mr. Ostrom resigned, there was no better person to assume the role of executive secretary than Ms. Booth. She guided the organization in this role for 27 years, before handing over the reins to Joseph Madden in 1970. Ms. Booth had such an influence on the success of the organization that she remained with DCAT (serving as Mr. Madden’s secretary) until she retired in 1975 – that is 47 years with DCAT!

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