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Alejandro Zaffaroni, Uruguayan biochemist developer of the birth control pill, dies at 91

Dr. Zaffaroni was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1995.

The following is an obituary published in The New York Times to honor a Uruguayan born scientist, graduated in Montevideo's Medicine School, who in his long career in the US is credited with having developed the birth control pill and the nicotine patches among other biotechnological advances.

 By Andrew Pollack  - Alejandro Zaffaroni, a prolific biotechnology entrepreneur and Silicon Valley legend who played a significant role in the development of the birth control pill, the nicotine patch, the DNA chip and corticosteroids, died on March first at his home in Atherton, Calif. He was 91.

The cause was complications of dementia, Ana Leech, his longtime assistant, said.

Dr. Zaffaroni, a Uruguayan-born biochemist, started at least 10 companies in Silicon Valley and nurtured other entrepreneurs who started companies. Colleagues recalled him as a beloved mentor, as unfailingly polite as he was immaculately dressed.

“I can’t imagine anybody in modern biotech history who’s been responsible directly or indirectly for more companies than Alex,” said Peter G. Schultz, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, who founded two companies with Dr. Zaffaroni.

Dr. Zaffaroni was most closely associated with Alza, which developed new ways to administer medicines to increase their effectiveness, reduce side effects and allow people to take pills less frequently. These advances include extended-release tablets, implantable devices and skin patches, like the NicoDerm CQ nicotine patch. Founded in 1968, Alza was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for about 12 billion dollars in 2001.

He also co-founded Affymetrix in 1991; the company was a pioneer in developing DNA chips, more formally known as microarrays. Those chips revolutionized genetic studies, allowing many genes to be analyzed at once. They are now widely used in studies aimed at finding genetic variants linked to different diseases.

Dr. Zaffaroni was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1995. He was born on Feb. 27, 1923, in Montevideo, Uruguay, the son of a banker. His mother died when he was 13, and his father died shortly before he turned 18, factors that Dr. Zaffaroni said made him more willing to leave his native country.

After graduating from the University of Montevideo and receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study in the United States, he took a cargo ship to New York in the waning days of World War II. Accepted by Harvard and the University of Rochester, he chose Rochester because it offered him more freedom to choose his research topic.

The research that earned him his doctorate in biochemistry focused on how to synthesize, isolate and measure corticosteroids, which were about to become the new wonder drugs.

In 1951 Dr. Zaffaroni went to work for Syntex, a small Mexican company that was isolating a raw material to make steroids from yams. After rising in the organization to become head of research, he helped set up an operation in Palo Alto, Calif., and transform it into a successful pharmaceutical company. It became most known for contributing to the development of the birth control pill. (Syntex was acquired by Roche in 1994.)

Dr. Zaffaroni left Syntex in 1968 to form Alza, which he named after himself by combining the first two letters of his first and last names.

Most drugs at the time were administered through simple pills or injections. A history of Dr. Zaffaroni’s career by the Life Sciences Foundation notes that the concept of “drug delivery” was so new that one pharmaceutical executive thought Alza was referring to a fleet of trucks.

Early products did not sell well, and Alza nearly went bankrupt in the late 1970s before righting itself. Besides the nicotine patch, it made trans-dermal patches containing a motion of sickness drug, a pain drug and nitroglycerin to treat angina. Other products using its technology include two extended-release pills: Procardia XL, for angina and hypertension, and Concerta, for attention deficit of hyperactivity disorder.

Dr. Zaffaroni stepped down as chief executive of Alza in 1987 and from its board in 1998.

In the 1980s and ’90s, at an age when many people would retire, he started many companies, including Dnax, Affymax, Symyx Technologies, Maxygen and SurroMed as well as Affymetrix. Some of them applied technology from Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry to drug discovery and research. Many went public or were acquired by larger companies.

“He always started with a big idea behind his companies and then adapted on the ground to the reality of what could be achieved,” said Isaac Stein, a former chairman of the Stanford University board who worked as a lawyer and then an investment partner with Dr. Zaffaroni.

In 2000 Dr. Zaffaroni started Alexza Pharmaceuticals, another drug delivery company named after him. The idea was to deliver drugs quickly through the lungs to the brain in the same way cigarettes deliver nicotine. The first product using Alexza’s technology — Adasuve, an inhaled drug to calm agitation in schizophrenics — went on sale just this week.

Dr. Zaffaroni and his wife, Lida, established a foundation that has given to various causes, including a breast imaging center at Stanford. In 2006, in honor of Dr. Zaffaroni, Stanford established a 10 million dollars financial aid program for Latin American students; much of the money was donated by people who had worked with him.

Dr. Zaffaroni is survived by his wife; his son, Alejandro; his daughter, Elisa; and two grandchildren.

His colleagues recalled him as a supportive boss who often gave a lot of responsibility to young people, some fresh out of college. At Alza, the first person he hired to run financial operations, Martin S. Gerstel, who succeeded him as chief executive, was a new graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Samuel Colella, a venture capitalist who invested in some of Dr. Zaffaroni’s companies, called him “one of the kindest, gentlest, most humane individuals that I think I’ve ever met”.