Kenneth Koe, an Inventor Behind Zoloft, Dies at 90
By MARGALIT FOXOCT. 13, 2015
Kenneth Koe was a biologist at Pfizer and helped create the antidepressant Zoloft. CreditTim Martin/The Day, via Associated Press
Kenneth Koe, an inventor of Zoloft, the antidepressant that has helped tens of millions of people since it was introduced a quarter-century ago, died on Oct. 7 in Shrewsbury, Mass. He was 90.
His death was announced by his alma mater, Reed College, in Portland, Ore.
A chemist who spent four decades on the staff of Pfizer, Dr. Koe developedZoloft, known generically as sertraline hydrochloride, with his colleague Willard Welch. One of the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — compounds that emerged in the late 20th century to treat depression, anxiety and related disorders — Zoloft became, with its fellow class member Prozac, among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world.
More than 100 million people have been treated with Zoloft since 1991, when it was brought to market in the United States. In 2005, the year before it became available as a generic, worldwide sales of Zoloft totaled more than $3 billion. (Prozac, first marketed in the late 1980s, became available generically in 2001.)Photo
Kenneth Koe CreditOrin Zyvan
In 2005, Science magazine included Zoloft on its list of 19 “blockbuster” drugs. That list, comprising drugs that had generated revenue of $2 billion or more in the preceding year, also included Lipitor, which lowers cholesterol; the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory Celebrex, prescribed for arthritis; and the antacid Nexium.
Zoloft, whose side effects can include nausea, reduced sexual desire and, in young people, increased suicidal thoughts or behavior, is also prescribed for conditions including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
The son of Benjamin and Monta Jean Koe, immigrants from China, Dr. Koe was born in Astoria, Ore., on April 15, 1925. His father worked in local salmon canneries before the family settled in Portland, where they ran a laundry.
Ken Koe received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Reed, which he attended on a full scholarship, followed by a master’s in the field from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.
In 1955, Dr. Koe joined Pfizer’s laboratory in Brooklyn. He worked for several years on antibiotics before being assigned to a group charged with developing psychotherapeutic drugs for conditions including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. He focused in particular on drugs that would enhance the efficacy of the neurotransmitter serotonin, whose role in the biochemistry of depression was just starting to be understood.
Starting in the late 1970s, he and Dr. Welch began concentrated work on what would become Zoloft. By modifying an earlier, ineffectual drug that had been abandoned in development, they were able to build a molecule that inhibited serotonin’s reabsorption in the brain. As a result, more serotonin remained available for neurotransmission, which in many people turned out to ease depression.
A longtime resident of Ledyard, Conn., Dr. Koe retired in 1995 from Pfizer’s central research facility in Groton. For their work on Zoloft, he and colleagues were honored by the American Chemical Society in 2006.
Dr. Koe’s wife, the former Jo Ann Lew, died in 1995. His survivors include two daughters, Kristin M. Koe and Karen E. Koe; a sister, Virginia Wong; and five grandchildren.
In 2008, on receiving the Howard Vollum Award for distinguished accomplishment in science and technology from Reed, Dr. Koe said that whenever he was identified in public as an inventor of Zoloft, strangers approached him to thank him.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου