The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7287 p228
21 February 2004

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Researcher of distinction reaches 80 more
Coping with the challenge of climate change more
Disquiet over hazard of beryllium exposure more

Researcher of distinction reaches 80

Sunday 22 February marks the 80th birthday of a remarkable figure in the history of British drug research and development, Sir David Jack. Born in Markinch, a mining village in Fife, Dr Jack was the sixth child in the family of a coalminer. He attended the high school at Buckhaven, and towards the end of his schooling his headmaster recommended that he study to be a mathematician. This choice of a career was, however, ruled out because the expense of the necessary university course was beyond the family’s means at the time.

Accordingly, after obtaining his Scottish Higher Certificate, David became a pharmacy apprentice at the branch of Boots in Cupar in Fife, where one of his three sisters was a dispenser. He then launched forth as a pharmacy student, eventually to graduate in 1948 with a BSc from what was then the Royal Technical College and Glasgow University, with first class honours in pharmacy and pharmacology. He remained for a year as an assistant lecturer in physiology and pharmacology, undertook the then obligatory period of National Service, and resumed lecturing.

In 1951 he moved to Greenford as a research pharmacist with Glaxo. Thence he transferred to Menley & James, which later became Smith Kline & French, as head of chemistry and pharmacy development. In 1960 he was awarded his London doctorate, the subject of his thesis being “Synthetic studies with semicarbazones”. In the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and joined Allen & Hanburys as head of research.

Dr Jack’s policy at A&H towards research projects prompted him to complement rather than duplicate work previously undertaken with Glaxo. The main issues he pursued concerned the relief of bronchial asthma and control of central nervous system diseases.

The first pharmacological agent resulting from this programme was salbutamol, which was initially marketed in inhaler form in 1969 and as an oral tablet a year later. The success of this product was followed by the appearance of beclamethasone, also in inhaler form, and labetalol, a useful beta-blocker launched in 1977. Other important products introduced about this time were salmeterol, ceftazidine, cefuroxime, ondansetron and sumatriptan. Among agents for treating gastric and duodenal ulcers the antagonist ranitidine proved successful in 1981.

His successes in the field of pharmacology, combined with his prominence in the management of the pharmaceutical industry, brought Dr Jack increasing recognition within the world of chemistry and pharmaceutics. He was awarded several medals, including the Harrison memorial medal of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1969 and the medicinal chemistry medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1980. He received an honorary DSc from the University of Strathclyde in 1982 and added a similar award from the University of Bath in 1987. In 1985 he was presented with the Society for Drug Research award for his work on gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory disease remedies, which had led to the development of ranitidine, salbutamol and labetalol. In 1982 he became CBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours and he was knighted in 1993. After his retirement from industry in 1987 he was elected in 1992 to the Royal Society.

Altogether, his is an extraordinary record of achievement and recognition.

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Coping with the challenge of climate change

It is now generally recognised by all but the most pigheaded of planners that we are suffering a change in climate that challenges many of our current practices. Some aspects of this problem have been examined in Science for 9 January by David King, chief scientific adviser to the Office of Science and Technology in London.

King states that globally the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1991. During the past century we have experienced a rise in overall temperatures of 0.6C. Global sea level has risen in the same period by 20cm, as land ice has shrunk and the oceans have undergone thermal expansion. Recently, Arctic sea ice has thinned by some 40 per cent. Closures of the Thames barrier have shown a more than six-fold rise in frequency since the 1980s, showing higher storm surges round North Sea coasts. Europe suffered an unprecedented heat wave last year, bringing severe mortality.

“In my view,” writes Dr King, “climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today — more serious even than the threat of terrorism.” Those are strong words.

In less than 200 years human activities have raised the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases to 50 per cent above preindustrial levels. The climate system’s inertia makes it impossible to stop further warming, but stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide might mitigate the worst effects. It is calculated that stabilising the level at about 550ppm by 2100 could reduce the incidence of flooding in vulnerable parts of India and Bangladesh by 80–90 per cent. Nevertheless, coastal flooding in Britain could be 30 times higher than today by 2080.

The UK aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050. This can be achieved by reducing consumption of energy and increasing use of renewable energy resources. Worldwide, it is the US government that is failing to play any part in attempts to avert the tragic consequences of inevitable climate change for the worse.

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Disquiet over hazard of beryllium exposure

Beryllium has no known therapeutic virtues. It is a light, hard, brittle metal of high melting point, resistant to oxidation, with a high heat capacity and thermal conductivity. As a recognised carcinogen, with a current threshold limit value of 2µg per cubic metre of air, its inhalation in any form is hazardous. Yet its hazard may be underestimated, according to a commentary published in The Lancet for 7 February by environmental scientists from the US who claim that the proliferation of industrial uses for beryllium is resulting in an unrecognised epidemic of chronic disease.

Occupational beryllium exposure occurs in the aerospace, automotive, electronics and telecommunications industries and in the military. In many lesser applications, the metal is used as an alloy with copper, aluminium, magnesium or nickel. The recycling of electronic devices such as computers may carry the risk of disease to workers who may be unaware of the risk they run.

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