AZT, the first HIV drug

Jerome Horwitz synthesised azidothymidine in 1964 as a cancer drug. It failed against cancer, and he shelved it. Twenty years later, when AIDS was killing people with nothing to offer them, the compound was pulled off the shelf and found to block HIV from copying itself; approved in 1987 as AZT, it was the first drug that worked against the virus and the foundation of the combination therapies that turned the disease from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Horwitz, a Jewish chemist at what became the Karmanos Cancer Institute, never received a cent in royalties.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.