Steroids, the steroid community, and Upjohn in perspective: a profile of innovation

The announcement in 1949 at the Mayo Clinic of the dramatic effect of cortisone in alleviating the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis triggered a competitive worldwide research and development effort directed toward a single goal, the practical synthesis of the rare corticosteroids. The confluence of an extraordinary coalescence of multiple events and circumstances in the growth of the Upjohn Company with the Mayo discovery, inclusive of a pioneering role in the steroid field, conspired to create an environment ripe for innovation. The breakthrough, which gave Upjohn an early competitive edge, followed with startling swiftness. A common mold of the genus Rhizopus was found to introduce enzymatically an 11α-hydroxyl group directly into the female hormone progesterone, which had just been synthesized from the soybean sterol stigmasterol—a one-step solution to the known multistep alternatives for 11-oxygenation. Retrospective analysis of this event in perspective with other key developments before and after at Upjohn and in the steroid community reveals a striking profile of ongoing innovation. A parallel scenario in kind was repeated at Upjohn a quarter century later. The sister soybean sterol sitosterol was radically degraded microbiologically and concurrently oxygenated in ring C to produce 9α-hydroxyandrostenedione, an alternative key intermediate for corticoid synthesis. New chemical processes, highly integrated with existing processes, assured the continuation of Upjohn's leading role in steroid hormone production.