Sarett
Patent No. 2,462,133 The Process of Treating Pregnene Compounds
Chemist Lewis Hastings Sarett, born December 22, 1917 in Champaign, Illinois, received his B.S. degree from northwestern University in 1939 and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1942. He soon joined Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, New Jersey as a research chemist.
Sarett prepared the first synthetic cortisone in 1944, when Merck & C. was a participant in a government effort to improve military medicine and four years later, the Mayo Clinic demonstrated the efficacy of this hormone against rheumatoid arthritis.
In 1949, he and several collaborators initiated an alternative synthesis commencing with raw materials derivable from coal, air, lime, and water. This led to the first route which was independent of naturally occurring starting materials.
For this work, Sarett received the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Chemistry in 1964, one of his many honors and awards. He has collaborated on approximately 100 technical papers and patents.
Sarett's career at Merck spanned 38 years and he eventually became Senior Vice President for Science & Technology at Merck & Co.
The above information was supplied by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., Room 1D01-Crystal Plaza 3, 2021 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia 22202. Videotapes and printed materials are currently available. For more information, visit the Foundation's web site at http://www.invent.org
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