P. Paul Minieri

Pasquale Paul Minieri (November 30, 1915 - July 23, 2001) was an American organic chemist that discovered the Ritter reaction.
Biography
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on November 30, 1915. He was married to Margaret Gabielra DiLandri on December 13, 1941, a few days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He had a son named Ralph, who died as a teenager, and a daughter Claudine who is married to Peter Connors. His grandchildren are Priscilla Connors and Grayson Connors.
While at graduate school at New York University, worked with Pfizer, from 1945 to 1948 on penicillin. When he left Pfizer for Heyden Chemicals in Garfield, New Jersey (which later moved to Princeton, N.J.), where he worked on the isolation of tetracycline and was involved in the tetracycline litigation.
He died in Princeton, New Jersey on July 23, 2001.
Legacy
A chemistry laboratory room is named in his honor at the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey Despite great scientific success, Dr. Minieri was always known to be incredibly humble and very close to his family.
Patent on tetracycline
The enormous profitability of the broad spectrum antibiotics made the race to isolate tetracycline extremely challenging. Heyden was not the only company that had discovered tetracycline; Pfizer, Cyanamid as well as Bristol-Myers had done so also. This new antibiotic was from two other recently discovered antibiotics; aureomycin and terramycin, which were well known as broad spectrum antibiotics because of their ability to treat a wide range of diseases as compared to penicillin, a narrow spectrum antibiotic. These broad spectrum antibiotics had enjoyed a lion’s share of the broad spectrum market (92%) until 1953.
Sometimes aureomycin and terramycin would be used interchangeably because the molecular structures were not clearly defined. This prompted Dr. Conover, a Pfizer scientist (in collaboration with other members of Pfizer’s research team) to determine the molecular structure of each of the two antibiotics. They managed to make this break through in the spring of 1952. It is in the course of Dr. Conover’s experiment that he discovered that tetracycline could be produced through deschlorination of aureomycin. As a result of this discovery, Pfizer applied for a patent on tetracycline. It filed the Conover application for a process and product patent on tetracycline in October 1952. It did not take long before American Cyanamid filed its Boothe-Morton application for patent rights to its tetracycline in March 1953. Dr. Conover application was rejected by the Patent Office in August 1953.
Heyden Chemicals filed applications on September 28, 1953 for both a product and process patent on tetracycline The later application resulted in Dr. Mineri receiving a landmark patent in 1956, as he discovered that tetracyline could be produced through fermentation. Upon filing its application, on November 4, 1953, Heyden sold its antibiotics division to American Cynamid, and Minieri went to work for its subsidiary, Lederle Laboratories, in Pearl River, New York In the interim, on October 2, 1953, Pfizer refiled its application. In January 10, 1955, Pfizer subsequently received a patent for tetracycline after American Cyanamid withdrew its product application. In effect, the priority of the tetracycline applications was decided by Pfizer and American Cyanamid. As a result, Dr. Minieri received the process patent on tetracycline, while Dr. Conover received the product patent. However, in 1960, Dr. Minieri left Lederle when it became clear that he could not work for American Cyanamid because of the legal issues related to tetracycline. His patent application and the acquisition of the antibiotics business resulted in the famous anti-trade litigation that involved Bristol-Meyers, Cyanamid and Pfizer which lasted until 1990. Minieri’s co-researcher, and former classmate, Herman Sokol, would later go on to become President of Bristol-Myers. When later Dr Minieri returned to Tenneco which had acquired the remaining businesses of Heyden Chemicals, he had clearly left an indelible mark in the field of antibiotics.
Works
P. Paul Minieri has contributed immensely in organic science through his research, experiments, theses, and articles. Some of these works include:
* New reaction of nitriles. I. Amides from alkenes and mononitriles. Ritter, John J.; Minieri, P. Paul. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (1948)
* A new broad spectrum antibiotic product of the tetracycline group. Minieri, P. Paul; Firman, Melvin C.; Mistretta, A. G.; Abbey, Anthony; Bricker, Clark E.; Rigler, Neil E.; Sokol, Herman. Heyden Chem. Corp., Princeton, NJ, Antibiotics Ann. 1953-54, Proc. Symposium Antibiotics (Wash., D.C.) (1953)
* A new sulfur-containing antibiotic, produced by a Streptomyces, active against bacteria and fungi. Eisenman, Wm.; Minieri, P. Paul; Abbey, Anthony; Charlebois, John; Moncrieff-Yeates, Mary; Rigler, Neil E. Heyden Chem. Corp., Princeton, NJ, Antibiotics & Chemotherapy (1953)
* Differentiation and separation of the tetracycline antibiotics by countercurrent distribution. Minieri, P. Paul; Mistretta, A. G., Am. Cyanamid Co., Princeton, NJ, Science (1955)
Patents
Dr. Minieri’s legacy was not just in publication but also in patents. Below is a list of some of the 40 patents that he received:
* Process for the preparation of tetracycline and chlortetracycline, assigned to American Cyanamid(Patent No. 2,734, 018). Pasquale Paul Minieri, Brooklyn, NY, and Melvin C. Firman, Princeton, and Herman Sokol, Fort Lee, NJ (Application: September 28, 1953, Serial No. 382, 637)
* Deionized Corn Steep Liquor in Production of Tetracycline Patent Number, assigned to American Cyanamid (Date of Issue: Dec 20, 1958) US Patent 2,866,738) Pasquale Paul Minieri, Brooklyn, NY, and Melvin C. Firman, Princeton, and Herman Sokol, Fort Lee, NJ
* Tetracycline extractions. Improvement in the production of antibiotics, assigned to American Cyanamid. Pasquale Paul Minieri and William Zeigler Patent Number: (Date of Issue: 1959)• US Patent 2,871,264
* Polyvinyl Halide Resin, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: April 10, 1974; Patent No 459812).
* Fungicidal compositions and their use, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Original application: February 8, 1971; Serial No 113,710; Now Patent No 3,734,925; Application: October 26, 1972; Serial No 301000).
* Soil fungicides and their use, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, a corporation of Delaware (Application: Jan 13, 1967; Serial No 608,980).
* Surface coating compositions containing N-(Indazoly-N’ methyl) Dialkanolamines, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Feb 5, 1954; Application No: 437, 721)
* Preservatives for aqueous compositions which contain additional polymers, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Original application: Nov 22, 1971; Serial No 201194; Divided and this application March 151973; Serial No: 341,561; Patent No: 3779972).
* N-(substituted Indazoly-N’-methyl) Hex amethylenetetraamonium, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Nov 22, 1971; Serial No 201,178; Patent No: 3730954).
* Surface coating compositions that contain N’-(substituted ethyl) Indazoles, assigned to Tenneco Chemicals Inc, Saddle Brook, N.Y. (Application: Feb 7, 1972; Serial No: 224,294; Patent No: 3826657).

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