THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
Pfizer's Powers Turning jubilantly bullish
case back to U.S. District Court for retrial. The lower court earlier had found Pfizer, together with codefendants American Cyanamid and Bristol-My ers, guilty of unlawful combination, conspiracy, and monopoly in manu facture, distribution, and sale of widespectrum antibiotics. Also named as alleged coconspirators were Olin Mathieson and Upjohn. At stake fol lowing this criminal conviction were treble damage civil suits under terms of the Sherman Antitrust Act. At one point, Pfizer joined the other four drug firms in offering $120 million in settlement of civil claims against the companies. Mr. Powers explained at last week's meeting of shareholders in New York City that $29 million of Pfizer's share of $42 million had al ready been set aside in escrow out of retained earnings. He explains that the settlement move had been de signed to avoid excessive losses to shareholders growing out of extended litigation for large amounts, but stoutly maintains that the company is innocent. The appellate court ruled 2 to 1 that District Court Judge Marvin E. Frankel had allowed the government at torneys to charge the drug firms with specific points of conspiracy, then try them on inflammatory issues of high profits and alleged patent fraud. The bill of particulars had specified that a conspiracy was formed in meetings between Pfizer and American Cyana mid officers in November 1953 and that Bristol-Myers, Upjohn, and Olin 14
C & E N A P R I L 27, 1970
Mathieson joined the conspiracy in December 1955. The appellate decision notes, how ever, that Judge Frankel instructed the jury that they need not decide that any meetings had taken place nor words been exchanged to be con vinced that a conspiracy had been formed. Further, government attor neys were allowed to dwell on the firms' supposedly "unreasonably high profit" in their summation. Defend ant attorneys' efforts to make the gov ernment and the jury follow closely the specifications of the bill of particulars were defeated, says the decision. Left hanging by this recommital to the district court are the lawsuits against the five pharmaceutical houses by Blue Cross, American Hospital As sociation, and other defendants left unsatisfied by a settlement offer out of the $120 million (C&EN, March 10, 1969, page 15). After 1967, the suc cess of such suits seemed bright, but the prospect of a retrial puts the issue in doubt once more. As he presided over the meeting that changed the name of Chas. Pfizer & Co., Inc., to Pfizer, Inc., Mr. Powers announced that Pfizer would stand by settlements that had already been agreed upon.
POLLUTION:
Phosphorus Indicted Four months after Rep. Henry S. Reuss (D.-Wis.) first thrust Congress into the "clean shirts vs. clean waters" debate, the House Committee on Gov ernment Operations released its report "Phosphates in Detergents and the Eutrophication of America's Waters." Detergent makers last week were hardly surprised that the 88-page re port strongly indicts phosphate build ers as the major culprit, among manmade sources, in hastening aging in U.S. lakes and that the report calls for phosphateless detergents by 1972. Nor were detergent makers very en thusiastic at the prospect that next week Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D.Me.) will ask them to come clean be fore his Air and Water Pollution Sub committee and cut out phosphates. Although the detergent industry hastens to point out that the report carries no legislative weight, this barely deters today's environmentally conscious national capital from flexing its muscle and applying pressure. Sen. Muskie says he will introduce bills to control environmentally dangerous substances where they are made, not used, and not depend upon special legislation for each product nor volun tary industry cooperation. Voluntary removal preceded by prompt and substantial phosphate con-
Enzyme presoaks contain more phosphorus than average U.S. synthetic detergents Brand name
Ρ content
Axion
17.4%
Biz
17.5
Brion
16.0
Sears Enzyme Presoak
15.3
Average U.S. syndet, 1967 Source: House Operations
Committee
9.4% on
Government
tent reductions is what the House re port asks. Procter & Gamble has al ready embarked on such a course (C&EN, April 6, page 11). The task is monumental, however, for an industry with annual sales of some $1.5 billion and which consumes 500 million to 700 million pounds of phosphorus yearly. The report sug gests that two phosphate replacements exist—nitriloacetic acid (NTA) and organic polyelectrolytes. NTA pro duction, however, is still only about 100 million pounds a year. Enzyme presoaks—one still small segment of the market with sales up to $80 million a year—are strongly criti cized. The report says they should be banished, contending that they are phosphate presoaks that, when fol lowed by a high-phosphate detergent, double phosphate pollution and make only a "trivial contribution to cleanli ness." A table lists phosphorus content for 108 washing products while other sta tistics in the report show average phosphate content in U.S. syntheticdetergents is up 9.4rA in 1967 from 7.7% in 1958. Compared with this average, presoak phosphorus con tent is significantly higher ( see table ). Other recommendations call for de tergent makers to formulate and selec tively market for hard- and soft-water areas, warn against soft-water use of high-phosphate products, and list product contents in decreasing order of predominance. An industry source suggests, however, that it would be difficult to separate soft- from hardwater areas and market detergents accordingly. Costs, difficult to estimate, are a big factor. Phosphate removal at waste treatment plants could cost $9.5 bil lion across the U.S., the report esti mates. The industry suggests, how ever, that a possible several-cent-abox-premium for replacing phosphates would more than offset costs for high removal of all algal nutrients.
ing his last year in the department, he was dean of the research and spon sored research programs. He contin ues to do research on properties of re actions at surfaces. In 1961 Dr. Hackerman became vice president and provost of Texas and was vice chancellor for academic af fairs for the University of Texas sys tem from 1963 to 1967.
AWARDS:
A Lenin for Linus
Dr. Norman Hackerman Another chemist-president
PEOPLE:
Hackerman at Rice Two presidents don't necessarily make a tradition or start one. But by coin cidence, Rice University will soon be headed by a second noted chemist. On Sept. 1 Dr. Norman Hackerman will become the Houston university's new president, a post vacated by Dr. Kenneth S. Pitzer, also a chemist, who became president of Stanford Univer sity in 1968. Dr. HacKerman is now president of the University of Texas at Austin. He has held high administrative posts at Texas since he became chairman of the chemistry department in 1952. Rice's new president takes over at a time when the usually placid campus is, like others across the nation, shaken with demonstrations. Rice's turbulent situation arose recently from demon strations by supporters and nonsup ported of an on-again, off-again invita tion to Abbie Hoffman, one of the Chicago Seven, to speak on campus. Two fires of undetermined origin damaged one of the campus buildings. Dr. Frank E. Van diver, a historian and acting president since March 1969, had resigned over the Hoffman incident. But the resignation was not accepted by Rice trustees. Dr. Hackerman is given much credit for moving the Texas chemistry de partment into the top dozen or so in the U.S. in graduate studies as well as in undergraduate programs during the nine years he headed the department. While department chairman, he was also director of the university's cor rosion research laboratory, and, dur
Stanford's Dr. Linus C. Pauling has added the International Lenin Peace Prize for 1968-69 to his steadily growing collection of honors. He is one of seven Lenin Laureates cited by the Soviet Union for "strengthening peace among nations." A former ACS President, Dr. Paul ing has twice been awarded Nobel Prizes—once in 1954 for his contribu tions to the theory of chemical bond ing and elucidation of complex struc tures, and again in 1962 for his efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. According to the official Soviet news agency, Tass, the Lenin Prize consists of a 25,000-ruble award ($27,750) and a gold medal bearing the profile of Nikolai Lenin. In his peace efforts, Dr. Pauling has consistently opposed the testing of nuclear weapons. In 1962 he and a group of plaintiffs (including 10 Nobel Laureates) filed suit against the U.S. Government asking for an injunction to prohibit nuclear detonations that would create radiation and fallout
Linus Pauling 25,000 rubles
hazards. An essentially identical suit was filed by the group in the U.S.S.R. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the dismissal of Dr. Pauling's action by a lower court. Dr. Pauling is currently traveling outside the U.S. and could not be reached for comment on receiving his latest award. A spokesman for the Stanford chemist, however, tells C&EN that Dr. Pauling is "pleased to receive the award, particularly at this time with the SALT talks in progress." No date or location has been fixed for the ceremonies, accord ing to Dr. Pauling's office.
CHEMISTS:
Pension Plan Progress ACS's proposed professionwide pen sion plan is moving closer to reality, according to ACS Board Chairman Milton Harris. He reaffirmed the board's continued favorable disposi tion toward the plan in announcing, together with ACS President Byron Riegel, the appointment of Dr. Ε. Ε. McSweeney as new chairman of the PWPP Committee. Dr. McSweeney, an active ACS member since 1938, and a member of the PWPP Committee for six years, is assistant director of R&D for Union Camp Corp. He follows Joseph Stewart who resigned, for per sonal reasons, as chairman of the PWPP Committee before presenting the pension plan proposal to the ACS Board and Council last February. Mr. Stewart is serving in an advisory ca pacity to the five-member committee whose membership and responsibilities will continue as before. "The committee expects to have ready soon," says chairman Mc Sweeney, "a revised proposal for the ACS Board, outlining in more detail than previously exactly how the money requested from ACS would be used." ACS, in supporting the PWPP Com mittee activities, consultants' services, surveys, and related staff personnel ac tivities, has channeled considerable funds into the pension plan concept already. About 20 scientific organiza tions have expressed an interest in joining the plan and participating in its operation. The American Institute of Chemists, for example, according to president Emerson Venable, " . . . for many years has been on record for a portable professionwide pension plan for chemists and chemical engineers." Dr. Harris, former president of AIC, says that he is pleased that AIC is anx ious to become one of the organiza tions that will join with ACS in oper ating the pension plan. APRIL 27, 1970 C&EN
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