Philip Needleman

Philip Needleman (February 10, 1939 – March 25, 2024) was an American medical researcher, pharmaceutical industry executive and leader and philanthropist.

Needleman was a professor in and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, as well as former chief scientist and head of R&D at Monsanto/Searle/Pharmacia. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine and served as interim president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and interim CEO of the Saint Louis Science Center. He is credited with discovering the first angiotensin receptor antagonist (hypertension); discovering the first pass drug metabolism (nitroglycerin); discovering a new endocrine hormone system ANF (atriopeptin), a critical hormone that controls salt, water metabolism, blood pressure and cardiac performance (heart failure); and discovering the existence and critical role of COX-2 in inflammation and oncology. In the pharmaceutical industry, he discovered and developed widely used therapeutics in arthritis (COX-2 inhibitors: Celebrex®, Bextra®, Parecoxib), heart failure (Eplerenone), and oncology (Sutent®). Provided by Wikipedia