Washington DC— Scientists on a Pfizer team have been named Heroes of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. They are being recognized for the development of IBRANCE® (palbociclib), a first-in-class prescription medicine used in combination with other approved hormonal therapies to treat certain patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

Honorees employed by Pfizer living in Connecticut include: Brian Chekal of Niantic; Nga Do, Brian Weekley and Kyle Leeman of Groton; Shengquan Duan, Rong Li, Mark Maloney and Karen Sutherland of East Lyme; Jade Nelson of Mystic; and Weili Yu of Pawcatuck. Pfizer’s David Erdman of Portage, Michigan, was also among the honorees.
Former Pfizer employees from Michigan contributing to the project include: Peter Toogood with Lycera and Joe Repine with Berry & Associates, both in Ann Arbor, and Derek Sheehan with Zoetis in Kalamazoo.
Scott VanderWel with AMRI in Carlsbad and Hairong Zhou with Genentech in South San Francisco are the California honorees.
John Quin with Cambrex in Charles City, Iowa; Mark Barvian with Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri; R. John Booth with Family Promise of Lawrence in Lawrence, Kansas; and Nathan Ide with Abbvie Inc. in Lindenhurst, Illinois, were also named heroes.
The Heroes of Chemistry program recognizes scientists whose innovative work in chemistry and chemical engineering led to commercial products that benefit the world. The teams will be recognized in a ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 21, during the Society’s 252nd National Meeting & Exposition in Philadelphia.
Each year, Heroes of Chemistry are nominated by their respective companies to recognize their talent, creativity and innovation. Previous Heroes have excelled in innovation at prominent international corporations, and have developed numerous commercial products that demonstrate strong financial performance. The commercial success of their products in the marketplace is an important criterion for this honor because ACS recognizes that good business results follow good science.
For more information about the program and this year’s winners, visit the Heroes of Chemistry webpage.
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.