Background
Étienne-Émile Baulieu was born in Strasbourg, France, on December 12, 1926. His father, Léon Blum, homonym of the French prime minister, died when he was three and a half years old.
Only when he was over 40 years old, and without his mother's knowledge, would Étienne-Émile discover, with admiration, the identity of his father.
Education
Étienne-Émile Baulieu had studied in Berlin and specialized in nephrology.
In 1942-1943 he was a student at the high school (Lycée) Champollion in Grenoble.
But he decided on different future and registered both in a pre-med program and in the Faculty of Science for a Bachelor of Science degree, to please his mother.
He was registered at the University of Paris under his war name, to which he added his real first name, Étienne.
Career
Drafted into the German army, Étienne-Émile Baulieu was decorated with the Iron Cross.
Marshal Pétain decorated him with the Legion of Honour.
After the discovery of insulin in Toronto, Canada, Leon Blum (Baulieu) was selected by the Rockefeller Foundation to be one of the first to use it for the treatment of diabetes.
He was the only man in the family.
He made false identification cards.
That's how Émile Baulieu was born!
He studied at the lycée and spent time in the Maquis resistance movement.
With the liberation of northern France, Baulieu wasn't really sure what he wanted to do.
Étienne Blum becomes Étienne-Émile Baulieu Demobilized, he returned to Paris at the end of October 1944; Strasbourg was not yet liberated.
Among the professors he had were Henri Mondor, Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot, Jean Hamburger, and Paul Milliez.
The clinical cases he saw in the medical divisions headed by Lucien de Gennes and Jacques Decourt led him to his discoveries.
He showed in 1960 that the main adrenal androgen, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, was a hydrophilic conjugated steroid, used as a marker of aging.
Paris had one Faculty of Medicine for more than 20, 000 students.
The discovery of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate by Baulieu got him an invitation from Seymour Lieberman, who at age 45 ruled the world of steroids.
It was a new era; Jack Kennedy had been elected as president.
The encounter led to Baulieu's interest in contraception and in the regulation of pregnancy.
He was invited to head a research unit called "U-33" at Kremlin Bicêtor, an important hospital of Paris.
His association-as a consultant-with the pharmaceutical enterprise Roussel Uclaf also dated from his return from the United States.
For three decades Baulieu worked with steroid hormones.
His early research dealt with the biosynthesis of these hormones.
He described the progesterone receptor and the androgen receptor.
His later findings included the biosynthesis in the brain of the "neurosteroids. "
RU 486 (Mifepristone) Research done in the 19706 led to the synthesis by Baulieu of the "abortion pill, " RU 486, in 1980.
After trials in 20 other countries, RU 486, or mifepristone, was approved for use by French and Chinese authorities.
In France some 4, 000 cases per month were sold to the country's 793 authorized abortion clinics.
Roussel Uclaf drew up five mandatory prerequisites before marketing RU 486: (1) abortion must be legal in the country where it will be available; (2) local public, medical, and political opinion must favor abortion; (3) synthetic prostaglandin must be available locally; (4) the distribution network must be strictly controlled; (5) patients should sign a consent form.
In the United States RU 486 won the backing of the American Medical Association (A. M. A. ) on June 27, 1990, for testing and possible use.
In July 1990 Baulieu stated that he "believe[d] the key to the future of RU 486 lies in the United States. "
When RU 486 is taken in conjunction with prostaglandins it is an extremely effective method of terminating pregnancy within the first nine weeks of gestation.
By 1990 it was used for between a quarter and a third of all pregnancy terminations in France.
The treatment requires three 200-milligram pills of RU 486.
After 48 hours a small amount of prostaglandin is given either as an injection or a pessary.
RU 486 blocks the normal action of progesterone on the cells lining the uterus to accept and sustain an embryo throughout development.
The prostaglandin acts on the womb to contract and expel its contents.
About 96 percent of women who received RU 486 and the prostaglandin within the first nine weeks of conception have a complete abortion within a day of receiving the prostaglandin.
Side effects, if any, are minor.
Although RU 486 is often referred to as the "abortion pill, " opponents of abortion have named it the "death pill. "
Baulieu describes RU 486 as a contragestive pill.
Its action is contra-gestation, just as contraceptives are contra-conception.
Apart from inducing abortion, RU 486 is considered a promising treatment for breast cancer, brain cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, as well as Cushing's syndrome.
By 1996, RU 486 had been used by over 200, 000 European woman, but Roussel Uclaf held back marketing in the United States because of opposition by antiabortionist groups.
In 1994, Roussel Uclaf gave patent rights to the Population Council, a nonprofit group in New York City.
Clinical trials of the drug were conducted over a period of two years, and the Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the drug in 1996.
DHEA, the Anti-aging pill Baulieu began working with dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA) in the 606, but its popularity peaked as the "fountain of youth" of the 906.
Production peaks at about age 25 and declines into old age.
Proponents of its use declared that it helped sleep, improved libido and generally resulted in overall better health.
Opponents, including the National Institute on Aging, warned about a variety of side effects that could result from use of DHEA.
Available by prescription, DHEA was also available as an over-the-counter drug, under provisions of the "1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, " which allowed marketing of nutritional supplements, provided labels did not contain health claims.
He was on the editorial boards of several French and international journals.
He chaired several scientific committees.
He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Special Program in Human Reproduction of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Baulieu's research was supported by French sources, but also by the American National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ford Foundation.
Many awards were bestowed upon Baulieu.
He was a laureate of l'Assistance Publique (Médaille de l'Internat) of the National Academy of Medicine (Dreyfous Foundation Prize, 1956; Specia Prize, 1964) and of the Academy of Sciences (1960).
He received the Reichstein Award of the International Society of Endocrinology (1972), the Grand Prix Scientifique of the City of Paris (1974), the Roussel Prize (with E. Jensen, 1976), and the Gregory Pincus Memorial Award (with E. Jensen, 1978).
He was R. S. McLaughlin Edward Gallic professor of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (1976) and Harden lecturer (London, 1979).
He was listed among the 1, 000 most cited scientists (ISI, 1981).
He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences beginning in 1982.
He was the first European medalist of the Society of Endocrinology (Great Britain, 1985).
He received the A. and E. Wippman Scientific Research Award, Planned Parenthood of America (1989), the Albert and Mary Lasker Clinical Research Award (1989), and the Alan Guttmacher Award, USA Reproductive Health Professionals (1989).
He gave the Claude Bernard lecture of the Royal Society in 1990.
In New York in the early 19606 Baulieu became close to artists.
He wrote, ". .. it was very important for me.
Among the artists with whom he closely associated were Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.
Further Reading Books authored by Baulieu are The Antiprogestin Steroid Ru 486 and Human Fertility Control (1985), Hormones: From Molecules to Disease (1990) and The Abortion Pill: Ru-486, a Woman's Choice (1991).
There are no biographies of Baulieu in English at this time.
In French, see a short portrait in La Recherche (December 1989) and his autobiography, Étienne-Émile Baulieu, Génération Pilule (Paris: 1990).
Although Baulieu's name has been mainly associated with RU 486, he contributed extensively to the knowledge of steroid hormones.
Important references can be found in his autobiography.
The September 22, 1989, issue of Science analyzed RU 486-how the drug works, research on medical uses other than abortion, and how it was discovered-and published an article by Baulieu on the scientific issues, with references and notes.
Politics
The Communist Party would have liked him either to enter the military or become a "permanent"-i. e. , professional-militant.
He was also advised to keep that name to avoid the anti-Semitism which existed in the Communist Party.