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Frederick Banting, Charles Best and James Collip, the three men named on the U.S. insulin patent granted in January 1923, signed their rights over to the University of Toronto for one dollar each. The university then licensed drug companies to make insulin while keeping control over its quality.

Toronto, 1923

HealthHistory

The story behind the card

Before insulin, type 1 diabetes, in which the pancreas stops making the hormone that controls blood sugar, usually killed children within a year or two of diagnosis. Banting, a surgeon, had the original idea in 1920; Best, a student, helped him run the experiments in J. J. R. Macleod's Toronto laboratory; Collip, a biochemist, found how to purify the extract enough to treat patients safely, and the first successful treatment followed in January 1922. The 1923 Nobel Prize went to Banting and Macleod, who shared their prize money with Best and Collip. Banting is often quoted as saying insulin ‘belongs to the world’, but no reliable source for the remark has been found; the one-dollar assignment is on record.

Türkçe oku
Frederick Banting, Charles Best ve James Collip, Ocak 1923'te verilen ABD insülin patentinde adı geçen üç kişiydi; haklarını kişi başı bir dolara Toronto Üniversitesi'ne devrettiler. Üniversite de insülin üretimi için ilaç şirketlerine lisans verdi ve ilacın kalitesini denetimi altında tuttu.
Toronto, 1923

İnsülinden önce, pankreasın kan şekerini düzenleyen hormonu üretemez hâle geldiği tip 1 diyabet, çocukları çoğunlukla tanıdan sonraki bir iki yıl içinde öldürüyordu. İlk fikir 1920'de cerrah Banting'den çıktı; öğrenci Best, J. J. R. Macleod'un Toronto'daki laboratuvarında deneyleri onunla birlikte yürüttü; biyokimyacı Collip ise özütü hastalarda güvenle kullanılabilecek kadar arıtmanın yolunu buldu. İlk başarılı tedavi Ocak 1922'de yapıldı. 1923 Nobel Ödülü Banting ile Macleod'a verildi; ikisi de ödül parasını Best ve Collip'le paylaştı. Banting'in insülin için “dünyaya aittir” dediği sık sık anlatılır, ama bu sözün güvenilir bir kaynağı bulunamadı; bir dolarlık devir ise belgelerde kayıtlıdır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Frederick Banting
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