George Rathmann

George Blatz Rathmann ( born December 25, 1927 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, † April 22, 2012 in Palo Alto, California ) was an American chemist and co-founder of the pharmaceutical company Amgen and Icos.

Life

George Blatz Rathmann was born the son of Louis Rathmann, a retailer, security expert and insurance agents, as well as Edna Blatz, a Bierbrauerin, in Milwaukee. He studied chemistry at Northwestern University in 1951 and received his PhD in Physical Chemistry at Princeton University. He had his first job at 3M. He then worked for several different companies and grew to for Abbott Laboratories, head of a research department. This position he resigned in 1980 and helped to collect start-up capital of 19 million U.S. dollars to establish the biotech company Amgen. This developed from then on the basis of DNA knowledge of different drugs. From 1983 epoetin α was developed, which came on the market in 1989 and the first blockbuster of biotechnology was.

With Icos Rathmann tried to repeat the success. After he co-founded this company, he received from different donors support, including Bill Gates with an investment of 5 million U.S. dollars. The company itself no longer exists since 2007. In its history have been approved by twelve potential drugs three.

For his services he was in 1995 Glenn T. Seaborg Medal from the University of California, Los Angeles awarded.

Rathmann died 22 April 2012 from the effects of pneumonia at his home in Palo Alto, California. He left behind his wife, three daughters, a son and thirteen grandchildren.