March marks the 100th birthday of the creator of ibuprofen

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Dr Stuart Adams, pictured here in 1970, told the BBC in 2015 that he was most pleased that hundreds of millions of people around the world were taking the drug he discovered.

The centenary of the birth of the man who discovered ibuprofen is being celebrated in the city of Vinland.

He began his pharmacy career aged 16 in Boots’ shop in March, Cambridgeshire.

David Edwards, of the town museum, said his talent was seen and he was “soon taken” to Boots’ headquarters in Nottingham.

Image source, John Devine/BBC

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Volunteer David Edwards said the Mars Museum volunteers wanted to “put Mars’ contribution to chemistry on the map.”

Dr. Adams arrived in March at the age of 14 in 1937, when his father had taken a job in the locomotive operating department—the town was one of the largest marshalling grounds in Europe.

After two years at the town’s grammar school, he entered an apprenticeship in a retail pharmacy run by local Boots.

Once he was transferred to Nottingham he “got some kind of scholarship at the University of Nottingham”, said Edwards, a Mars and County Museum volunteer and archivist.

Image source, Mars and County Museum

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The Museum found a picture of Stuart Adams (back row far right) on the Grammar School football team

They filed a patent for the compound 2-(4-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid – later called ibuprofen – in 1961.

It was not approved for use until 1969, after years of clinical trials, and in 1983 it became available without a prescription.

Image source, Samuel Kirby / Boots UK

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Dr. Stuart Adams was honored for his research that led to the discovery of ibuprofen in the 1960s

The museum only became aware of Dr. Adams’ relationship with March in 2016, when he did some research on former students of Mars Grammar School.

Museum volunteer Victoria Benningfield researched his career and created a display that was shown to mark the centenary of his birth on April 16, 1923. He died at the age of 95 in 2019.

“It is wonderful to put Mars’ contribution to chemistry on the map, which has had such a clear impact globally,” said Mr. Edwards.

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