Finding Dora Richardson - The Forgotten Developer of Tamoxifen
In the early 1960s, chemist Dr. Dora Richardson synthesized a chemical compound that became one of the most important drugs to treat breast cancer: tamoxifen. Although her name is on the original patent, her contributions have been lost to history.\xa0
In the first episode of this two-part podcast, Katie Couric introduces us to Dora\u2019s story. Lost Women of Science producer Marcy Thompson tracked down Dora\u2019s firsthand account of the history of the drug\u2019s development. This document, lost for decades, tells the story of how the compound was made and how Imperial Chemical Industries, where Richardson worked, almost terminated the project because the company was hoping to produce a contraceptive, not a cancer therapy.