Julian, << JOOL yuhn, >> Percy Lavon (1899-1975), was an American chemist and business executive. He developed synthetic drugs that are duplicates of substances produced in the human body. He also founded companies that developed, produced, and sold drugs. Julian held more than 100 patents.
In 1935, Julian discovered a way to make synthetic physostigmine, a compound found in the Calabar bean, the poisonous seed of an African plant. Doctors use that drug to treat glaucoma, an eye disease. Julian made many products from soybean oil. He used one of them in a synthetic progesterone that he developed as a commercial product in 1940. Progesterone, which is produced in the human body, regulates reproductive functions. In 1948, Julian developed the first commercially successful synthetic cortisone, another substance produced in the human body. Physicians use cortisone to treat arthritis and many other diseases.
Julian founded Julian Laboratories in 1954 to develop drugs. In 1961, he sold that company but remained its president. Three years later, he left to found a manufacturing company and a research institute.
Julian was born on April 11, 1899, in Montgomery, Alabama, the grandson of slaves. He graduated from DePauw University in Indiana in 1920, received an M.A. degree from Harvard University in 1923, and obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of Vienna in Austria in 1931. In 1947, Julian won the Spingarn Medal , the highest honor given by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Julian died on April 19, 1975.
See also Cortisone ; Progesterone .
