The innovative invention Birth control pill was the product of several scientists, including famous Mexican inventor Luis Miramontes.
Russell Marker was a professor of Botany at Pennsylvania State University in the 1940’s when he became interested in the hormones found in plants. After reading an article by a Japanese scientist who said that the Mexican Yam had a high content of hormones, he traveled to Mexico to investigate.
Russell Marker was able to harvest several Yams and bring them back home with him. He presented his ideas to the scientific community, but his ideas were rejected. Marker formed his own company called Syntex which was incorporated in 1944.
Syntex extracted hormones from the Mexican Yams and sold those hormones to other pharmaceutical companies. At the end of the first year, Marker wanted his share of the company profits, but the president of Syntex had rolled them over to expand the business. Marker was furious and broke ties with the company, returning to Penn State.
Syntex found Hungarian scientist George Rosencrantz in Cuba, and made him the director of the company. Before long he had recreated Marker’s work and improved upon it. Carl Djerassi from Bulgaria was hired as the scientific director, and a number of Mexican scientists were added to the staff as well.
Hispanic inventor Luis Miramontes was one of Djerassi’s students at the time when he joined the staff. On October 15, 1951 he wrote his own new procedure for the synthesis of the progestin norethindrone in his notebook. This formed the basis for some of the most powerful progestins.
Going on at the same time in Massachusetts, scientists Hudson Hoblin, Dr. Chan, and Dr. Robert Kistner were working with hormones at the Worcester Foundation. Dr. Chan found that high doses of Norethindrone from Syntex, or Norethynodrel from Searle given to rabbits would shut down the ovaries and prevent ovulation.
The catalyst for the invention of the Birth Control Pill was when Margaret Sanger arrived at the Worcester Foundation to discuss the possibility of a birth control pill. After their discussions, they decided to do more tests on animals and attempt to make a go of it. They decided to make the first birth control pill by taking Searle’s Norethynodrel and adding estrogen.
The first human use of the birth control pill was in Puerto Rico under the supervision of Dr. Edris Rice-Way Carson. Searle introduced the oral contraceptive in the United States as Enovid. Syntex licensed their version to Johnson & Johnson who sold it under the name Ortho-Novum a year after Searle had introduced theirs in the early 1960’s.
Thanks to the hard work and innovation of Russell Marker, Carl Djerassi, the famous Mexican inventor Luis Miramontes, Dr. Chan at the Worcester Foundation, Margaret Sanger and many others, the invention of the Birth Control pill is now widely available to all who want it.