Jewish Invention Myths: 6-Mercaptopurine
6-Mercaptopurine (or 6MP for short) isn’t the sort of thing that is on everyone’s tongue, but it was and is an important medicinal drug used to treat leukaemia and lymphoma which was discovered between 1950 and 1951. Jews routinely claim at Gertrude Elion discovered 6MP in 1950/1951 while she was working at Burroughs Wellcome. (1)
Rather like the similar claim that Elion invented the anti-viral drug Aciclovir in 1977 – which I have addressed elsewhere – (2) this claim doesn’t pass muster when subjected to closer examination. Much like the Aciclovir claim; the problem is that the claim treats Elion as if she was the sole researcher involved which just isn’t true.
The truth is that her boss and research director at Burroughs Wellcome George Hitchings is named on the original 1954 patent along with Elion (3) and indeed when you dig into the literature on the discovery of 6MP – despite the mainstream media’s attempts to make Elion the sole discoverer of 6MP – (4) you find Elion all but admitting that she was running the tests, but was doing so under the explicit direction of Hitchings. (5)
This also corresponds with later testimony from both Hitchings and Elion to this general effect with Elion wanting to maximize her role and Hitchings correcting the record while not denying Elion’s contribution. (6)
So, while Elion was part of the discovery of 6MP: Hitchings was the person directing Elion’s research and actions which then allowed her to publish under her own name while sharing credit with her for the discovery on the patent and the subsequent Nobel Prize for Medicine.
References
(1) https://christianislamicforum.wordpress.com/dedicated-to-our-jewish-brethren/
(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-aciclovir
(3) https://jwa.org/media/patent-granted-to-george-hitchings-and-gertrude-elion-for-6-mercaptopurine
(4) For example: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm50le.html
(5) For example: Gertrude Elion, 1986, ‘Historical Background of 6-Mercaptopurine’, Toxicology and Industrial Health, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 1-3
(6) https://web.archive.org/web/20160414102406/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/29/magazine/the-nobel-pair.html