2022 NIHF Inductee Stewart Adams: The Persistent Pharmacologist

Often, when suffering from a headache, back pain or fever, we are likely to take a medication like ibuprofen due to both its availability and its effectiveness. However, if not for the persistence of 2022 National Inventors Hall of Fame^® (NIHF) Inductee Stewart Adams, this option would not be available.

Unlikely Beginnings

At first, Adams had no intention of entering the field of medicine. As a 16-year-old from Byfield, Northamptonshire, England, he left school unsure of what to do next.

That all changed when he began a retail pharmacy apprenticeship at Boots Pure Drug Co. This experience inspired Adams to pursue a degree in pharmacology at the University of Nottingham, which led to a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Leeds.

With this experience, he returned to Boots to work in the company’s research department and was tasked with finding new and improved treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. Together with fellow 2022 NIHF Inductee John Nicholson, he began testing the anti-inflammatory properties of aspirin.

While aspirin was the preferred drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis during the 1950s, the drug’s effectiveness required a high dosage, increasing the risk of side effects including gastrointestinal problems and allergic reactions.

A Decade of Research

Adams and Nicholson would test over 800 chemical compounds in order to find a suitable drug. Though the work was difficult, for over a decade the team persevered. When they discovered a promising solution, Adams would even test the drug on himself. He said, “I always felt that if you were going to ask volunteers to take a drug and later patients, you ought to be prepared to take it yourself.”

Among the compounds that the team tested was 2-(4-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid, which would later become ibuprofen. “It was important to try them out and I was excited to be the first person to take a dose of ibuprofen,” Adams said in an interview with the BBC.

Lasting Impact

Rigorous clinical testing followed, and in 1966, Adams and Nicholson were issued a United States patent for ibuprofen. Compared to previous rheumatoid arthritis treatments, ibuprofen represented a safer alternative.

Ibuprofen debuted in the United Kingdom as Brufen in 1969, and availability in the United States soon followed under the name Motrin. After proving its effectiveness in treating non-rheumatic conditions, the drug was approved in the 1980s for over-the-counter use in the United Kingdom as Nurofen, and in the United States as Advil.

Today, millions of people take ibuprofen as a general pain reliever, and it is listed on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines.

In 1983, Adams officially retired from the research department at Boots, where he was head of pharmaceutical sciences. Over the course of his career, Adams held 14 U.S. patents and lectured on ibuprofen and related topics. For his work in developing ibuprofen, he was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1987. On January 30, 2019, he passed away in Nottingham, England.

To learn more about the other inventors Inducted in Stewart Adams’s class, view our Inductee search page.