The Wyeth Pharmaceuticals team will be honored Sept. 7 at the American Chemical Society's 226th national meeting in New York City, along with chemists from Abbott Laboratories, Merck Research Laboratories and Pfizer Inc. Those to be recognized from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals are Steven H. Doares, Ph.D., Ronald J. Eby, Ph.D., the late Chia-Lung Hsieh, Ph.D., Bradley E. Kosiba, Ph.D., Maya Koster, Kent D. Murphy, Velupillai Puvanesarajah, Ph.D., and Dan Joseph Speelman.
"The broad range of invaluable products that our Heroes of Chemistry have developed and commercialized has dramatically advanced the health, well-being and lifestyles of children around the world," said ACS President Elsa Reichmanis, Ph.D. "The chemical advances made by the honorees serve as testimonials to the valuable role chemists and chemical engineers play in improving lives. It is with pride that the ACS recognizes them as Heroes of Chemistry."
Many have termed the introduction of Prevnar the most important advance in pediatric medicine in the last decade. Prior to the development of the vaccine, Streptococcus pneumoniae was a leading cause of meningitis, bacteremia, pneumonia and bacterial otitis media (inflammation of the middle ear) in young children. If untreated or resistant to treatment, pneumococcal disease can result in hearing loss, learning disabilities, speech and hearing problems, and brain damage. Each year, more than one million children throughout the world die as
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Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society
22-Aug-2003