Perspectives in Health Magazine
The Magazine of the Pan American Health Organization
Volume 7, Number 1, 2002

Mexico's Pill Pioneer
by Gerald S. Cohen

Dr. George Rosenkranz at his home in Mexico City. His lifetime of work in pharmaceuticals has won him recognition, including Mexicos highest honor in the health field. (Photo ©Luis Corles)

Fifty years after playing a leading role in the discovery of the oral contraceptive, George Rosenkranz, former CEO of the now- dissolved pharmaceutical powerhouse Syntex Corp., still avoids getting enmeshed in the politics of contraception. As far as he's concerned, the debate over the ultimate worth of the pill is best left to others.

In Mexico, however, where the 85-year-old chemist first came in 1945 to jump-start Syntex's synthesis of progesterone, there is little doubt where government leaders, health officials, and leading academicians stand. In the past year and a half, Rosenkranz has received three awards for his contributions to science and family planning. Among them are the prestigious Eduardo Liceaga Medal--the highest honor Mexico bestows in the health field--and awards from the University of Mexico and the Ministry of Health.

The discovery and marketing of the pill was arguably among the most profound important developments in recent pharmaceutical history. In Latin America, its rapid adoption from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s contributed significantly to the region's dramatic fertility decline. Between 1961 and 1964 alone, the number of U.S. women taking it doubled each year to 4 million users; today some 20 million American women are on the pill. Worldwide, some 300 million women have used the oral contraceptive since its inception.

Mexico's role in this global phenomenon was a result of Rosenkranz's and Syntex's work on the birth control pill. But the company's overall success also benefited the country's economy. Through its production of progesterone, Syntex became, by the mid-1950s, Mexico's fifth-largest exporter, attracting badly needed foreign currency to the still developing nation. "Syntex was an example of the importance of applying research to industry," says Guillermo Soberón, past president of the University of Mexico and a former minister of health. "It is something we are still lacking in Mexico--the opportunity to encourage industrial research."

Equally important were the company's investments in education. During Syntex's early years, when not a single Mexican had acquired a Ph.D. in chemistry, Rosenkranz used Syntex funds to underwrite an advanced degree program in organic chemistry at the University of Mexico's Institute of Chemistry.

"Syntex was fundamental for the development of the Institute of Chemistry at the university," says Soberón. "Several of the people who worked with Syntex also worked at the institute, and their research guided students on their doctoral theses." A number of the researchers nurtured by Syntex have gone on to prominent roles in Mexico's scientific community. Moreover, says Soberón, "these researchers developed another generation of researchers."

Continue