Drugs pioneer

Press, 9 November 1988, Page 21

Drugs pioneer

SIR JAMES BLACK,

this year’s joint

winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, has saved millions from cardiac deaths through his pioneering drugs research. ANNABEL FERRIMAN, health correspondent, profiles Sir James.

Sir James Black, the Scottish scientist recently awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine, is the most successful drugs pioneer in history. He invented propanolol (trade name: Inderal) — the first betablocker, used to treat heart disease and high blood pressure — and cimetidine (Tagamet), used to treat stomach ulcers.

Both created a generation of new drugs and made record profits for their manufacturers. Sir James, aged 64, is professor of analytical pharmacology at King’s College Hospital Medical School. He shares his prize with two American researchers, Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, who developed drugs for cancer and A.I.D.S. Professor Desmond Laurence, head of pharmacology at University College, London, says: “Black in the laboratory has relieved more human suffering than thousands of doctors in a lifetime at the bedside.

“He has a totally original mind. I think he is a genuis. He is tough, genial and a marvellous leader.”

Sir James made his first breakthrough, the discovery of beta-blockers in 1962, when he was working for 1.C.1., the British pharmaceutical and chemical giant. He had been exploring possible treatments for angina, the pain caused when a hardworking heart is deprived of enough oxygen. Medical science had known for decades that adrenalin, triggered by stress, exertion or anxiety, induced angina and heart attacks. Sir James set out to design an inert drug with the same biochemical shape as adrenalin.

Like a false key, it needed to fit into the receptor sites on the heart and block adrenalin from entering. His discovery of this first betablocking drug saved millions of lives, yet Sir James did not receive royalties from his invention and his career with 1.C.1. ended after a stormy clash. He then joined an American firm, Smith Kline and French, that was interested in his next project, developing a drug for treating stomach ulcers. The problem was the same. Too much gastric acid, switched on by histamine in the body, is a prime cause of ulcers. He decided to search for an inert key which would block the stomach’s receptor sites for histamine. These anti-ulcer drugs became known as H2-blockers. They revolutionised the treatment of ulcers.

Dr Charles George, professor of clinical pharmacology at Southampton University, says: “Few ulcer patients now need to have operations.

“Sir James Black scored a double first. He set out to design molecules for a specific task and succeeded in producing them, he has laid the foundation of modern scientific medicine world wide.”

Sir James trained at St Andrew’s University, lectured in physiology at the University of Malaysia and worked for the Wellcome Foundation after leaving Smith Kline and French. When he learned of the award, he said: “I wished I had had my beta-blockers handy. For the moment, I feel completely shocked.’ Copyright London Observer.