Hitchings, George Herbert

born April 18, 1905, Hoquiam, Wash., U.S.

died Feb. 27, 1998, Chapel Hill, N.C.

U.S. pharmacologist.

He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Over nearly 40 years, he and Gertrude Elion designed a variety of new drugs that work by interfering with replication or other vital functions of specific disease-causing agents; these drugs include those to treat leukemia, severe rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases (also useful for suppressing rejection after organ transplants), gout, malaria, urinary and respiratory-tract infections, and herpes simplex. In 1988 he shared a Nobel Prize with Elion and James Black.

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▪ 1999

      American pharmacologist (b. April 18, 1905, Hoquiam, Wash.—d. Feb. 27, 1998, Chapel Hill, N.C.), was a medical research pioneer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for the development of important disease-fighting drugs. He shared the prize with colleague Gertrude B. Elion and with Sir James W. Black. Hitchings made great strides in the fields of chemotherapeutics and immunology, and his drug discoveries brought him international repute and secured the success of his employer, Burroughs Wellcome Co. (now part of Glaxo Wellcome PLC). He graduated cum laude from the University of Washington (B.A., 1927; M.A., 1928) and gained his Ph.D. in biochemistry (1933) from Harvard University, where he taught until 1939, when he transferred to Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), Cleveland, Ohio. In 1942 Hitchings founded the biochemical department at the American laboratories of Burroughs Wellcome in Tuckahoe, N.Y. (In the late 1960s the company moved to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.) He was joined in 1944 by Elion, who first worked as his assistant before becoming his research partner. Their discovery of cancer-fighting drugs led in turn to the development of important immunosuppressants. Much of this success could be attributed to their unique methodology, which eschewed the prevailing tactics of trial and error and pointedly examined the biochemical differences between the development of normal cells and diseased cells. The investigation of purines and pyrimidines, the nucleotide bases of DNA, revealed that compounds could be introduced to stop the spread of the cancer, bacteria, or virus by tricking the pathogen (disease-causing agent) into believing that the compound was necessary for replication; once the compound was metabolized, however, it would in fact suppress the growth of the diseased cell. Among the valuable drugs Hitchings and Elion helped create to treat diseases were pyrimethamine (Darapin) for malaria, 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) for leukemia, azathioprine (Imuran) for rheumatoid arthritis and to facilitate organ transplants, trimethorpim (Septra) for urinary and respiratory tract infections, acyclovir for viral herpes, and azidothymidine (AZT) for AIDS. Hitchings, who later headed charitable organizations, wrote or co-wrote more than 300 scientific papers.

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▪ American scientist

born April 18, 1905, Hoquiam, Wash., U.S.

died Feb. 27, 1998, Chapel Hill, N.C.

      American pharmacologist who, along with Gertrude B. Elion (Elion, Gertrude B.) and Sir James W. Black, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their development of drugs that became essential in the treatment of several major diseases.

      Hitchings received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington and earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Harvard University in 1933. He taught at Harvard until 1939, and in 1942 he joined the Burroughs Wellcome Laboratories, at which he conducted research until his retirement in 1975.

      Over a span of nearly 40 years, Hitchings worked with Elion, who was first his assistant and then his colleague in research at Burroughs Wellcome. Together they designed a variety of new drugs that achieved their effects by interfering with the replication or other vital functions of specific pathogens (disease-causing agents) or cells. In the 1950s they developed thioguanine and 6-mercaptopurine (6MP), which became important treatments for leukemia. In 1957 their alteration of 6MP produced the compound azathioprine, which proved useful in treating severe rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders and in suppressing the body's rejection of transplanted organs. Their new drug allopurinol was an effective treatment for gout. Other important drugs that were developed by Hitchings and Elion include pyrimethamine, an antimalarial agent; trimethoprim, a treatment for urinary-tract and other bacterial infections; and acyclovir, the first effective treatment for viral herpes.

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