Eightieth Anniversary of the Drug Chemistry Center/All-Russian Pharmaceutical Chemistry Scientific Research Institute

Abstract

On November 30th, 1920, a resolution of the Main Administration for Pharmaceutical Chemistry Plants formally created the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Scientific Research Institute in Moscow. Before this time, there had been no pharmaceutical chemistry research center in Russia. Furthermore, in those years there had been essentially no pharmaceutical chemical industry in Russia. Individual pharmaceutical “cottage industries” mainly produced infusions, extracts, ointments, and were busy packaging tablets. By long established tradition, czarist Russia bought basic drugs from abroad, mainly from Germany. Beginning in 1914, the World War forced an unprepared Russia to supply the growing needs of the army and the population for drugs, and a drug “shortage” began. Meanwhile, Russia had a large number of great chemists (Professor and later Academician N. D. Zelinskii, N. S. Kurnakov, A. E. Porai-Koshits, S. N. Reformatskii, A. E. Tishchenko, A. E. Favorskii, A. E. Chichibabin etc.) who were closely connected with scientific and applied problems in the pharmaceutical chemistry area. During the war years, they attempted to organize synthesis of some of the drugs most needed by the country in laboratories they directed (although in extremely small amounts). It became quite obvious that Russia needed a developed domestic pharmaceutical chemistry science and industry. As a result, despite the severe conditions connected with revolutionary events and civil war in Russia, the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Scientific Research Institute was created. The Institute was faced with the following major tasks: a) development of synthesis methods and technology for production of pharmaceutical chemicals not previously produced in Russia; b) working out matters connected with replacing imported raw material used in production of domestic medicinal products; c) discovery of new drugs; d) study of the domestic raw material base of medicinal plants and their use; e) technical assistance to industry; f) unifying and coordinating scientific research in the field relevant to the pharmaceutical chemical industry. Because of the multifaceted nature of these tasks, the Institute was immediately planned as a comprehensive institution including synthetic, pharmaceutical, biological, botanical, analytical, and other types of laboratories (divisions). Major specialists with appropriate qualifications were recruited to work at the Institute. In the first phase, the Institute was located in the pharmacy building of the Ferrein company, but in 1930 it moved to a specially constructed building and a prestigious area of Moscow (7 Zubovskaya ul.), near the clinics of the Medical Department at Moscow University and the buildings of the Second Moscow State University, where it remains today. The Institute began to successfully deal with the tasks confronting it. Back in the 1920’s, synthesis methods were developed and adopted industrially for a large number of drugs that were well-known but nonetheless medically essential (collargol, xeroform, iodoform, urotropin, codeine, dionin, etc.). New galenic heart drugs were obtained from crude plant material: adionilen, gitalen, konvalen, diginorm, etc. Study of alkaloid-bearing flora of the Soviet Union was begun. In 1928, the alkaloid division was created and the prominent scientist and Academician A. P. Orekhov was put in charge. Subsequently, research on synthesis of drugs, isolation and study of new alkaloids was significantly expanded. The search for new, original, domestic drugs began. In 1929, under the direction of Professor O. Yu. Magidson, research began on creating antimalarial drugs, which were quite medically essential because of the widespread distribution of malaria in those years in the Central Asian republics and in the south of Russia. First the drug acrichine was created, then bigumal, and later chlorochine, chloridin, and other antimalarial drugs. Together with the synthesis of acrichine, work began on building the large Acrichine pharmaceutical chemical plant (complex) near Moscow, which later set up to produce a large number of other synthetic