Paul Janssen

Vocation

Notable

Family

Belgian physician, biologist, chemist, pharmacologist and founder of Janssen Pharmaceutics (pharmaceutical company). During his military service, he worked at the University of Cologne in Germany at the Institute of Pharmacology of J. Schuller, where he worked until 1952. After he returned to Belgium he worked part-time at the Institute of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (University of Ghent) of Professor Corneille Heymans, who had won the Nobel prize for medicine in 1938. Janssen founded his own research laboratory in 1953, with a loan from his father. Janssen and the scientists at Janssen Pharmaceutica discovered more than 80 new medicines. Five of his medicines are on the WHO list of essential medicines. During his life he received more than 80 medical prizes and 22 honorary doctorates. In 1990 Janssen was knighted by Baudouin I of Belgium and became a Baron. Paul Janssen has 5 children and 13 grandchildren. He died very suddenly on November 11, 2003 Rome in the arms of his wife Dora Arts. Link to Wikipedia biography