Ensuring Healthier Hearts

Meet 2019 NIHF Inductees John Baer, Karl H. Beyer Jr., Frederick C. Novello and James Sprague!

We are honored to have John E. Baer, Karl H. Beyer Jr., Frederick C. Novello and James M. Sprague join the National Inventors Hall of Fame^® (NIHF).

The Invention

The development of thiazide diuretics, the first class of drugs used to safely and effectively treat hypertension, or high blood pressure, made a lifesaving impact in the 1950s.

Chlorothiazide entered the market in 1958. This was the first FDA-approved diuretic to inhibit reabsorption of sodium and chloride ions in the kidneys without upsetting electrolyte balance, giving physicians a new and better way to reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart failure by lowering blood pressure.

The Inventors

John Baer, Karl Beyer Jr., James Sprague and Frederick Novello developed chlorothiazide, while working at Merck & Co., Inc.

During the 1950s, heart disease was a leading cause of death in the U.S., and many of the medications prescribed to patients were difficult to use and had toxic side effects.  There was an urgent need for safe, effective drugs to treat the conditions associated with heart disease found in millions of Americans.

Beyer, a pharmacologist and physician, put forward a hypothesis for a better diuretic solution for hypertension. Sprague, an organic chemist, found the chemical compounds that could overcome the sodium absorption issues presented by many drugs used at the time. Baer, a pharmacologist, directed the testing and clinical trials, and Novello, an organic chemist, synthesized chlorothiazide and further developed the thiazide class of anti-hypertensive diuretics.

The Impact

Thiazide diuretics like chlorothiazide offered a safe alternative to the drugs of the 1950s. As early as 1959, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health reported declining death rates resulting from cardiac events, which they partly attributed to the new thiazide antihypertensives. In 1967, a landmark study of Veterans Administration patients with high blood pressure showed that thiazides dramatically reduced cardiovascular events, hospitalization and sudden death by more than 90 percent. 

Baer, Beyer, Novello and Sprague were honored with the Lasker Foundation Special Public Health Award for the development of thiazide diuretics.

The group will join the ranks of other global innovators in the National Inventors Hall of Fame during the 2019 Induction Ceremony on May 2.