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CHICAGO—The path to the discovery of cortisone—a top-selling, important drug, with dozens of indications—was complicated by failure, false moves, desperation and obsession. The tale, recounted in the Philip Hench, MD, Memorial Lecture: Crossroads of History & Hope: Discovery & First Use of Cortisone for RA at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in October, is an odyssey with a cast of characters obsessed with the pursuit of the drug, said Eric Matteson, MD, emeritus professor of medicine in rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic.
The story centers on the man who figured most prominently in the discovery of cortisone: Edward Kendall, MSc, PhD. He was recognized for the achievement in 1950 with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Dr. Kendall was a Mayo Clinic scientist who often didn’t get along well with his colleagues and, at the time, was not considered a great chemist and was “not a scholar,” according to one assessment. He was given to self-inflicted wounds: He twice announced in the early 1930s that he’d isolated cortin (later to be known as cortisone), only to be forced to retract the claim a year later each time.
“He faced the kind of embarrassing situation that would have ended the career of many scientists,” Dr. Matteson said.