Howard Press

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Howard A. Press (July 9, 1923 - 2002) was a "Manufacturing Pharmacist" (he never obtaind a RPh degree) and inventor. He was the first to develop a process for time release or sustained release medication, in the middle 1950's, for which a process patent was issued in 1960.
Biography
Press was born in New York City to Harry and Augusta Press. As a young man he attended Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, NYC, and later attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus until World War II broke out. Press became a serviceman, and served in the European Theater. As he had been training in pharmacology and chemistry before the war, he was assigned to military hospitals in England, where he continued his education. Immediately after the Normandy landings, Press related that he was "among of the first soldiers to enter Paris" on its liberation. Initially in France, he was stationed at a hospital in Etretat, performing laboratory tests. He later attended the Sorbonne, and after the war, returned home to his wife Renee and attended the Columbia College of Pharmacy.
PROW Chemical corporation
Realizing that there the war had created an acute shortage of chemicals in many industries, Press joined with his wife's uncle, Lou Morrow, to form PROW Chemical Corporation. This was a brokerage house with offices in lower Manhattan. There were worldwide chemical shortages caused by the war. PROW located surplus chemicals and put them together with buyers who needed them, making a commission. It was far extremely successful, so Mr. Morrow began buying inventory. Press felt that did not fit the business model of the company and the partners separated. Press then opened General Pharmacal Corp. initially based in Jersey City, and soon moved it to Hoboken, NJ and began manufacturing private formulations and other kinds of pills. General Pharmacal also produced their own brands; e.g., "5-Star" saccharine tablets, and an Amphetamine diet pill called "Obesebb", as well as salt pills for the military, and paint/dye tablets for the Boy Scouts.
Development of Nitroglyn
It was while running PROW that Press learned that angina sufferers were required to take nitroglycerine pills regularly to keep the symptoms at bay. He began experimenting with a method of releasing medication over time, which came to be known as "time release" or "sustained release" medications.
Initially, he coated poppy seeds with different thicknesses of medicated coatings, each type dyed a different color; with these he assembled capsules, and was able to accomplish the goal of sustained release of the medication over time. He then took up the idea of embedding these "seeds" in a pill. This would prove to be a daunting task, given the enormous pressures that tablets undergo in a tablet press. Eventually he discovered that glyceryl monostearate and other non-toxic waxy compounds, known as excipients, could protect the seed from having their coated skins crack under the pressure, and applied for a process patent that was eventually granted by the US Patent Office in 1960.
and Forest Laboratories, and they arranged for Key Corporation in Florida to manufacture under Press' process. With Key Corporation they created a licensing agreement, which resulted in the release of Amsustain and Spasticol S.A., which were announced publicly first on August 14, 1953 by Howard W. Stern, president of Key Corporation of Miami. Nitroglyn was fially released as Key's third sustained-action product, but was not announced to the medical profession until November 6, 1953. "Nitroglyn" was a nitroglycerine analog, which for the first time allowed angina sufferers to live far longer without pain and constant medication, and later, "Amsustain" a Dextro Amphetamine Sulfate, designed to be released over 8-12 hours.; as well as "Spasticol", a combination of homatropine methylbromide and phenobarbital, for relief of "colonic hyperfunction".
Press fought against "big pharma" for the next 17 years, but would never be even reasonably compensated for his contribution to humanity.

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