Gregory Goodwin Pincus (April 9, 1903 - August 22, 1967), American physician, biologist, and researcher, was co-inventor of the contraceptive pill. Pincus began studying hormonal biology and steroidal hormones early in his career. He was instrumental in persuading Searle to fund this research, at a time when Pfizer and Parke-Davis were reluctant to fund human trials.

Pincus's first breakthrough came early, when he was able to produce in vitro fertilization in rabbits in 1934.

His experiments involving parthenogenesis produced a rabbit that appeared on the cover of Look magazine in 1937 and led to his dismissal from Harvard University.

In 1953, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick sought out Pincus for a project involving contraception. Pincus, along with Min-Chueh Chang, investigated and established that progesterone would act as an inhibitor to ovulation. However, despite early success in preventing ovulation, and therefore fertilization, a study with beagle dogs that had been on the pill for three years showed an incidence of breast tissue nodules. Pincus had to establish long term safety, as well as efficacy, of his progesterone contraceptive.

In order to prove the safety of "the pill," human trials had to be conducted. These were initiated on medical students and institutionalized patients in Massachusetts. There was a high incidence of side effects, which led to the Massachusetts trials being abandoned when the women refused to continue taking the contraceptive. Puerto Rico was selected as a trial site in 1954, in part because there was an existing network of 67 birth control clinics servicing low-income women on the island. Trials began there in 1956 and were supervised by Dr. Edris Rice-Wray. Women, once again, experienced severe side effects from "the pill" (Envoid). Rice-Wray wrote Pincus and reported that Envoid "gives one hundred percent protection against pregnancy" but causes "too many side reactions to be acceptable". Pincus disagreed. The trials went on and were expanded to Haiti, despite high attrition rates, due to the large number of women eager to try this form of contraception. In May 1960, the FDA approved Envoid for contraceptive use.

Pincus's successes led to Searle introducing the first widely available oral contraceptive ("the pill"). The social, religious, ethical, and medical ramifications of this discovery are still being felt throughout the world, and his discoveries also led to the burgeoning sciences of steroidal hormone research, sex hormone research, and new forms of oncology. Pincus's work may be some of the most influential science of the twentieth century.

References

1903 births | 1967 deaths | Jewish-American scientists

Gregory Pincus | Gregory Pincus | Gregory Goodwin Pincus | Gregory Goodwin Pincus