Background
He was born in Broughty Ferry, in the east of Dundee.
He was born in Broughty Ferry, in the east of Dundee.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1960 from the University of Street Andrews, gaining a Doctor of Philosophy in 1963.
Prozac was introduced in 1988, and has been the world"s leading antidepressant. He moved to the United States of America in 1963, working on research at three universities for three years, including Imperial College London. He researched the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and its effect on the heart.
Prozac
He worked with David T. Wong and Klaus Schmiegel.
Tricyclic antidepressants had been introduced in the 1950s, and further antidepressants included monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). These had side-effects.
In 1971, Wong and Molly went to a lecture in Indianapolis given by Solomon H. Snyder, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University. This gave them a method to test new compounds similar to antihistamines found by Molloy, one being fluoxetine.
Fluoxetine hydrochloride (3-aryloxy-3-phenylpropylamine, an aryloxyphenylpropylamine), the first of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), was discovered in 1972, and made public in 1974.
Work had began with Robert Rathbun in 1970. Other well-known SSRIs would be sertraline (Zoloft) from Pfizer, and paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat) from GlaxoSmithKline. Fluoxetine is on the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines. He later worked on cardiovascular disease and cardiac arrhythmia, and phenethylamines as antidepressants.
He retired in 2001.