CONTENTS ISSUE 06
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DCAT’S Leading Lady
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DCAT Highlights
- Helen L. Booth, DCAT’s Executive Secretary, retires after 47 years
- Celebrates 50 years of DCAT Annual Dinners - Inaugurates DCAT Scholarship Program
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1970-1980: The First Billion-Dollar Pharma Companies and the Promise of Biotechnology
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DCAT’s Past Presidents 1970-1980
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DCAT’s Executive Staff
- Genentech scientists clone human insulin & human growth hormone - Squibb researchers develop ACE inhibitor - Merck & Co., Pfizer cross $1-billion sales threshold - Biotech Start-Ups, Biogen, Centocor, and Genentech are launched
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DCAT’s Leading Lady Helen L. Booth, DCAT’s Executive Secretary, retires after 47 years
A member of the DCAT staff from 1928 until 1975, Helen L. Booth played many roles during her time with the DCAT organization. Her leading role was as executive secretary, which she assumed in 1943. 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! During her tenure with DCAT, Ms. Booth helped establish many firsts for the organization – the first Helen L. Booth member outing (1936), first industry symposium prior DCAT Executive Secretary to the Annual Dinner (1961), and Ms. Booth was there when DCAT transitioned into an independent membership association (1961). Over the years, Ms. Booth assisted DCAT’s Executive Committee to increase the membership and develop new member benefits. DCAT’s membership grew more than 300% within a twenty year period (1939-1959) – reaching 800 members. She helped create DCAT’s bi-weekly newsletter, the Digest of Current Activities and Trends, which was distributed to all member companies and contained important industry information. She also facilitated DCAT’s Operation Retort – a series of surveys that examined problems common to members. Ms. Booth was always there to assist members in whatever way she could, so it’s no surprise that she was beloved by so many members. We found member testimonials from 1951 in the DCAT archives. Nearly all of the testimonials recorded gave thanks and praise to Ms. Booth.
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Here are a few of our favorite quotes: “We have had many occasions to call upon Helen Booth, the capable Secretary of the Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Section. At these times we were always very happy and satisfied that Miss Booth rendered a service which was very helpful to us and we were exceedingly grateful to the DCAT for possessing the foresight to make available such efficient service.” – J.G. Kelnberger, Divisional Sales Manager, Scholl Manufacturing Co. “Time after time we have made use of your New York facilities in order to obtain information, and it is really amazing how quickly Secretary Helen Booth has been able to come back with accurate and complete answers to our questions. This is especially noteworthy since for obvious reasons we only go to Miss Booth with the most difficult types of questions.” – F.M. Schwemmer, VP, Ruthrauff & Ryan Inc. “I can say without reservation that Miss Booth has been most cooperative in furnishing information promptly and completely. She has certainly accumulated a vast amount of information on who’s who and what’s what in our industry and was very helpful to me on the five or six occasions I have had to call her during recent months.” – S.N. Stokes, Manager, NY Branch, Merck & Co., Inc. “Apparently Miss Booth has a fund of information and if she doesn’t have the answer to a specific question, she knows how to get it. She has cut many corners for me and I am grateful for her cooperation at all times.” – Warren F. Schumacher, Manager, New York Office, J.T. Baker Chemical Co. “We wish to advise that Miss Booth has been very helpful on several occasions when we have called upon her for information and her service has always been extremely courteous and prompt.” – L.M. Scovill, Sales Manager, Cosmetic Division, Scovill Manufacturing Company
Ms. Booth was an integral part of the DCAT organization. In a 2014 interview with longtime DCAT member Bob Magnus, Jr., he reflected on Ms. Booth:
“She was DCAT. Talk about strong people, it was her way or the highway. She was quite something. She ran it very well; she was very good at what she did.” After retirement, Ms. Booth remained a good friend of DCAT. In 1995, she passed away at the age of 91. >>
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Ms. Booth with DCAT members throughout the years
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DCAT Highlights
• 1975 DCAT’s “Digest of Current Activities and Trends” Gets a Makeover (Pictured Above)
DCAT’s bi-weekly newsletter, the Digest of Current Activities and Trends was created in the 1950s and was in need of a “modern 1970s” makeover in 1975. DCAT Public Relations Committee Chairman, Henry J. Covello, helped design the revised format for the newsletter. Click to see the new design and find out the industry trends at that time. >>
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• 1976 Celebrates 50 Years of Annual Dinners (Pictured Left)
The Waldorf Astoria is still the place to be as over 1,900 DCAT members attended the 50th DCAT Annual Dinner. US Secretary of Commerce Elliot L. Richardson was the keynote speaker for the milestone event.
• 1976 DCAT Headquarters Moves Outside of Manhattan In late 1976, the DCAT Headquarters relocated to Bell Boulevard in the New York borough of Queens. DCAT Executive Vice President Joseph Madden was a longtime resident of the area, and since he handled most of the day to day office responsibilities, the DCAT executive committee agreed to move the office outside of Manhattan.
• 1978 DCAT Inaugurates Scholarship Program (Pictured Right)
With the organization’s continued success, the Executive Committee wanted to give back to the DCAT member community. DCAT established a scholarship program to provide financial assistance to children of DCAT member company employees for post-secondary school studies.
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1970 - 1980 The First Billion-Dollar Pharma Companies and the Promise of Biotechnology The decade of the 1970s is a period of growth and prosperity for the pharmaceutical industry as companies reach new financial heights led by medical innovation, global expansion, and acquisitions. Also, the promise of biotechnology takes root with the founding of Genentech and Biogen (then two start-up companies) with expertise in the emerging field of genetic engineering, and Centocor, initially focused on applying, biotechnology to develop diagnostic medical test.
INDUSTRY TIMELINE
1970
The start of the decade begins with key deals that help to build the foundation of several pharmaceutical companies. In what would become part of today’s Sanofi, Synthélabo was formed by the merger of Laboratories Dausse (founded in 1834) and Laboratories Robert & Carriére (founded in 1901), building on the legacy of Joseph Lister’s and Louis Pasteur’s discoveries in asepsis to innovate sterilization techniques. Sanofi is founded in 1973 when the French oil company Elf Aquitaine acquires the pharmaceutical group Labaz. Also in 1973, L’Oreal acquires a majority stake in Synthélabo, which would later merge with Sanofi to form Sanofi–Synthélabo in 1999.
1970
Ciba merges with Geigy to Ciba-Geigy Ltd; the pharmaceutical business of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz would later combine in 1996 to form Novartis. Three years later in 1973, CibaGeigy launches Voltaren (diclofenac sodium), an anti-inflammatory drug still on the market today.
1970
Warner-Lambert agrees to acquire Parke-Davis; the acquisition provides Warner-Lambert with positions in prescription and consumer healthcare products; Pfizer would later acquire Warner-Lambert in 2000. A key product later emerging from Parke-Davis research is Lopid (gemfibrozil), one of the first cholesterol-lowering agents.
1971
Schering Corporation and Plough Inc. merge to form Schering-Plough Corporation. At age 79, Abe Plough, who had founded Plough Chemical Company more than 60 years earlier in 1908, is made Chairman of the Board.
1972
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begins over-the-counter drug review to enhance the safety, effectiveness and appropriate labeling of drugs sold without prescription. Also, the regulation of biologics, including serums, vaccines, and blood products, is transferred from the National Institutes of Health to the FDA.
1972
Scientists at Beecham Research Laboratories discover amoxycillin and launch Amoxil, which will become a widely used antibiotic.
1972-1973
Pfizer crosses the billion-dollar sales threshold. One year later in 1973, Merck & Co. also eclipses the billion-dollar sales mark. >>
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1973
Novo introduces monocomponent (MC) insulin, a pure form on insulin. Nordisk markets Nanormon growth hormone for the treatment of growth hormone insufficiency. The growth hormone is extracted from human pituitary glands.
1974
Merck & Co. scientists produce the first analyzable sample of a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
1974
Bayer acquires Cutter Laboratories Inc. and in 1978, Miles Laboratories Inc., positioning Bayer in the US pharmaceuticals market.
1975
Squibb researchers Miguel A. Ondetti and David W. Cushman create Capoten (captopril), the first in a new class of high blood pressure agents called ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors.
1976
Eli Hurvitz, who had started out in the 1950s working for Assia, a small pharmaceutical company in Petah, Tikva, Israel, formally merges Assia and two other pharmaceutical companies, Zori in Tel Aviv and Teva (founded by Dr. Gunter Friedlander) in Jerusalem, to form Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the largest local healthcare company. Eli Hurvitz would serve as Teva’s CEO and president from 1977 to 2002 and as chairman from 2002 to 2010, marking 58 years of service to the company.
1976
Genentech is established in 1976 by Hebert Boyer, a biochemist from the University of California San Francisco, and Robert Swanson, a venture capitalist. In the early 1970s, Boyer and geneticist Stanley Cohen pioneered work in the new field of recombinant DNA technology. One year later in 1977, Genentech produces the first human protein (somatostatin) in a microorganism (E. coli bacteria).
1977
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduces the Bioresearch Monitoring Program as an agency-wide initiative to ensure the quality and integrity of data submitted to the FDA and provides for the protection of human subjects in clinical trials by focusing on preclinical studies on animals, clinical investigations, and the work of institutional review boards.
1978
Human insulin is cloned by Genentech scientists, and one year later in 1979, Genentech scientists clone human growth hormone.
1978
A group of the world’s most accomplished biologists gather in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss forming a new kind of pharmaceutical company; Biogen NV is incorporated. Two of its founders, Walter Gilbert with Harvard University and Phillip Sharp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will later be honored with a Nobel Prize. In 1980, Gilbert is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Paul Berg of Stanford University and Frederick Sanger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, for their work in understanding the sequencing of DNA. In 1993, Sharp receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard Roberts of New England Biolabs, for their discovery of split genes. In 1979, one year after the founding of Biogen, Robert Luciano, then senior vice president and future CEO of Schering-Plough, convinces the company’s then current CEO to invest $8 million in the small start-up biotech company Biogen.
1979
Centocor is founded with the goal of using biotechnology to develop diagnostic medical tests; its two main founders are Hubert J.P. Schoemaker, a biochemist, and Michael Wall, an entrepreneur. The firm, which goes public in 1982, would later be acquired by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and combine with J&J’s Ortho Biotech Products to become today’s Janssen Biotech, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J.
DCAT’s Past Presidents 1970 - 1980
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1970-1971 Herman W. Schulman, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works
1971-1972 Richard W. Eddy, Union Carbide Corporation
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1972-1973 J. Paul Ekbert, Tenneco Chemicals Inc.
1975-1976
1973-1974
1974-1975
James M. Brady, Sterling Drug Inc.
Edward T. Hanna, Olin Chemicals
Arvid V. Zuber, Marion Laboratories, Inc.
1976-1977
1977-1978
1978-1979
Carl W. Lorentzen, W.R. Grace & Co.
F.S. Lakey, Lederle Laboratories
Thomas E. Kennedy, Burroughs Wellcome Co.
1979-1980 John E. McVeigh, Pfizer Inc.
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DCAT’s Executive Staff Joseph Madden, Executive Vice President In 1970, Helen L. Booth stepped down as executive secretary and Joseph Madden filled the newly renamed role of executive vice president. Mr. Madden adjusted smoothly with the help of Ms. Booth (who remained on the DCAT staff as secretary until 1975). Mr. Madden served as executive vice president of the organization for 17 years – becoming yet another longtime, beloved member of the DCAT Executive Staff.
Mary F. McManus, Secretary When Helen L. Booth retired from DCAT in 1975, the organization hired Mary F. McManus to assume the role of secretary. She remained in this role for 17 years until retiring in 1992 at the age of 80. Longtime DCAT members say “DCAT was her family” and that “she was loved and absolutely adored by everyone”.
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