P. Paul Minieri

P. Paul Minieri(b.1915 -2001), a graduate from New York University, was one of their most successful scientists. Minieri’s contribution to organic chemistry was first established while attending graduate school and working under the guidance of Professor John J. Ritter, he authored a thesis that later became the foundation for the Ritter reaction. Ritter triggered enthusiasm that enabled the highly gifted Minieri to embark upon a very successful scientific career.

Melvin Firman -Upper Left-, P. Minieri -Upper Right- Herman Sokol -Lower Right-

Personal Life

Dr. Minieri was born in Boston, Mass on November 29, 1915. He was married to Margaret Gabielra DiLandri on December 13, 1941, a few days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He had a son named Ralph, who devastatingly died as a teenager, and a daughter Claudine who is married to Peter Connors. His grandchildren are Priscilla Connors ^[1] and Grayson Connors^[2]. Dr. Minieri died in Princeton, N.J. a few miles away from his research laboratory on July 23, 2001. A chemistry laboratory room is named in his honor at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. Despite great scientific success, Dr. Minieri was always known to be incredibly humble and very close to his family.

Background

While at graduate school at NYU, he was fortunate to work with Pfizer, from 1945 to 1948. This gave him the opportunity to work on penicillin. When he left Pfizer for Heyden Chemicals in Garfield, N.J. (which later moved to Princeton, N.J.), it was clear that his career was blossoming and his resume was further enriched when his team made an important discovery for Heyden in 1953. Little did he know that this discovery lead to an unprecedented legal battle for many years known as the Tetracycline litigation ^[3]

Patent on Tetracycline

The enormous profitability of the broad spectrum antibiotics made the race to isolate tetracycline extremely challenging. Heyden was not the only company that had discovered tetracycline; Pfizer, Cyanamid as well as Bristol-Myers had done so also. This new antibiotic was from two other recently discovered antibiotics; aureomycin and terramycin, which were well-known as broad spectrum antibiotics because of their ability to treat a wide range of diseases as compared to penicillin, a narrow spectrum antibiotic. These broad spectrum antibiotics had enjoyed a lion’s share of the broad spectrum market (92%) until 1953.

Sometimes aureomycin and terramycin would be used interchangeably because the molecular structures of were not clearly defined. This prompted Dr. Conover, a Pfizer scientist (in collaboration with other members of Pfizer’s research team) to determine the molecular structure of each of the two antibiotics. They managed to make this break through in the spring of 1952. It is in the course of Dr. Conover’s experiment that he discovered that tetracycline could be produced through deschlorination of aureomycin. As a result of this discovery, Pfizer applied for a patent on tetracycline. It filed the Conover application for a process and product patent on tetracycline in October 1952. It did not take long before American Cyanamid filed its Boothe Morton application for patent rights to its tetracycline in March 1953. Dr. Conover application was rejected by the Patent Office in August 1953.

Heyden Chemicals filed applications on September 28, 1953 for both a product and process patent on tetracycline The later application resulted in Dr. Mineri receiving a landmark patent in 1956, as he discovered that tetracyline could be produced through fermentation. Upon filing its application, on November 4, 1953, Heyden sold its antibiotics division to American Cynamid, and Minieri went to work for its subsidiary, Lederle, in Pearl River, N.Y. In the interim, on October 2, 1953, Pfizer refiled its application. In January 10, 1955, Pfizer subsequently received a patent for tetracycline after American Cyanamid withdrew its product application. In effect, the priority of the tetracycline applications was decided by Pfizer and American Cyanamid. ^[4] As a result, Dr. Minieri received the process patent on tetracycline, while Dr. Conover received the product patent. However, in 1960, Dr. Minieri left Lederle when it became clear that he could not work for American Cyanamid because of the legal issues related to tetracycline. ^[5] His patent application and the acquisition of the antibiotics business resulted in the famous anti-trade litigation that involved Bristol-Meyers, Cyanamid and Pfizer which lasted until 1990. Minieri’s co-researcher, and former classmate, Herman Sokol, would later go on to become President of Bristol-Myers. When later Dr Minieri returned to Tenneco which had acquired the remaining businesses of Heyden Chemicals, he had clearly left an indelible mark in the field of antibiotics.

Works

P. Paul Minieri has contributed immensely in organic science through his research, experiments, theses, and articles. Some of these works include:

• New reaction of nitriles. I. Amides from alkenes and mononitriles. Ritter, John J.; Minieri, P. Paul. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1948)

• A new broad spectrum antibiotic product of the tetracycline group. Minieri, P. Paul; Firman, Melvin C.; Mistretta, A. G.; Abbey, Anthony; Bricker, Clark E.; Rigler, Neil E.; Sokol, Herman. Heyden Chem. Corp., Princeton, NJ, Antibiotics Ann. 1953-54, Proc. Symposium Antibiotics (Wash., D.C.) (1953)^[6]

• A new sulfur-containing antibiotic, produced by a Streptomyces, active against bacteria and fungi. Eisenman, Wm.; Minieri, P. Paul; Abbey, Anthony; Charlebois, John; Moncrieff-Yeates, Mary; Rigler, Neil E. Heyden Chem. Corp., Princeton, NJ, Antibiotics & Chemotherapy (1953)

• Differentiation and separation of the tetracycline antibiotics by countercurrent distribution. Minieri, P. Paul; Mistretta, A. G., Am. Cyanamid Co., Princeton, NJ, Science (1955)

Patents

Dr. Minieri’s legacy was not just in publication but also in patents. Below is a list of some of the 40 patents that he received:

• Process for the preparation of tetracycline and chlortetracycline, assigned to American Cyanamid(Patent No. 2,734, 018). Pasquale Paul Minieri, Brooklyn, NY, and Melvin C. Firman, Princeton, and Herman Sokol, Fort Lee, NJ (Application: September 28, 1953, Serial No. 382, 637) ^[7]

• Deionized Corn Steep Liquor in Production of Tetracycline Patent Number, assigned to American Cyanamid (Date of Issue: Dec 20, 1958) US Patent 2,866,738) Pasquale Paul Minieri, Brooklyn, NY, and Melvin C. Firman, Princeton, and Herman Sokol, Fort Lee, NJ

• Tetracycline extractions. Improvement in the production of antibiotics, assigned to American Cyanamid. Pasquale Paul Minieri and William Zeigler Patent Number: (Date of Issue: 1959)• US Patent 2,871,264

• Polyvinyl Halide Resin, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: April 10, 1974; Patent No 459812).

• Fungicidal compositions and their use, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Original application: February 8, 1971; Serial No 113,710; Now Patent No 3,734,925; Application: October 26, 1972; Serial No 301000).

• Soil fungicides and their use, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, a corporation of Delaware (Application: Jan 13, 1967; Serial No 608,980).

• Surface coating compositions containing N-(Indazoly-N’ methyl) Dialkanolamines, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Feb 5, 1954; Application No: 437, 721)

• Preservatives for aqueous compositions which contain additional polymers, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Original application: Nov 22, 1971; Serial No 201194; Divided and this application March 151973; Serial No: 341,561; Patent No: 3779972).

• N-(substituted Indazoly-N’-methyl) Hex amethylenetetraamonium, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Nov 22, 1971; Serial No 201,178; Patent No: 3730954).

• Surface coating compositions that contain N’-(substituted ethyl) Indazoles, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Feb 7, 1972; Serial No: 224,294; Patent No: 3826657).

See also

• Tetracycline

• Ritter reaction

• Tetracycline litigation

References

1. ^ Connors, Priscilla. "Priscilla Connors". http://www.facebook.com/people/Priscilla-Connors/589681556. 
2. ^ Connors, Grayson. "Grayson Connors". http://www.facebook.com/grayson.connors. 
3. ^ There are 14 reported cases that are related to Minieri’s work on tetracycline. The most recent is Simmers v. American Cyanamid Corp. 394 Pa.Super. 464 (1990). Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Argued October 25, 1989.
4. ^ Peter Temin, The Evolution of the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry, Paper No. 223, ,September 1978, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. appearing at http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/63589/evolutionofmoder00temi.pdf?sequence=1
5. ^ Time Magazine, August 11, 1958, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825466,00.html Cacciapaglia and Rockman, “Proposed Drug Industry Antitrust Act--Patents, Pricing, and the Public “ 30 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 875, 894 (1961-1962); Kennedy, “Patent and Antitrust Policy--Acquisition of Patents by Fraud or by Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices,” 35 George Washington Law Review 512, 531 (1966-1967)
6. ^ Antibiotic Research Division, Heyden Chemical Corporation, Princeton, New Jersey (1953-1954) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetracycline.pdf
7. ^ Patented Feb 7, 1956 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetracycline.pdf