A Visit to Dr. Paul Janssen
A long time ago my associate Mauricio Ganança and I experimented with a new drug, called cinnarizine, and published several papers about its use in patients with labyrinthine disorders.
When I went to Zürich for a medical meeting organized by Prof. Ugo Fish, I was invited to visit Janssen Pharmaceutica, in Belgium, the laboratory that had developed cinnarizine.
So, after the meeting, my wife and I flew from Zürich to Brussels to visit the laboratory. For some reason we thought that it was near Brussels, but we were mistaken.
As soon as we crossed the passport control in Brussels’ airport we saw a man with a small billboard saying “Janssen” and we went in his direction. He checked our names and took us to a Mercedes limousine. Then he took off, left Brussells and rode for about forty minutes on a fine road. He did not speak English nor French, only Flemish, so we could not talk. And we had no idea about where he was taking us.
Then he stopped at a hotel and helped us to get registered. I asked the hotel people where we were and they told me we were in Antwerp. He left us there without any further explanations. The hotel was excellent and we were tired, so we slept for a while and watched TV. Then we went for a walk and dined at the hotel.
Next morning, at 8 o’clock, the hotel reception called us to say that the driver was waiting for us. He took us to a small town named Beerse, where Janssen Pharmaceutica was located. There we were received by a nice gentleman who spoke fluent English and told us briefly what our visit would be. We would go to several different departments and then he added: “Dr. Janssen will see you at 11:45 AM. He is a very busy man, so he can only give you fifteen minutes of his time.”
Then he guided us to the areas where men with computers attempted to discover new chemical structures; the laboratory where small amounts of new drugs were synthesized, according to these computer structures, for experimentation; the areas where experiments were conducted in mice and in dogs, and the large laboratories where industrial drugs production was developed and actually produced. We learned that they were synthesizing some 3,000 new drugs each year; two or three would lead to promising new pharmaceuticals.
At 11:45, promptly, we arrived at Dr. Paul Janssen’s office. This man was a genius, he personally changed the life of the patients with severe neurological and psychiatric disorders and his products also helped anesthesiologists and otologists.
And then we began to talk. He asked questions about our patients and how we were treating them. And then I mentioned that we were trying droperidol (another of his drugs) in patients with Menière’s disease, and I could see that he was very interested in this.
At noon he asked us to excuse him for a moment, went to his telephone and made two or three calls. He was speaking in Flemish, so we did not know what he was saying. Then he came back to us and invited us to have lunch with him at a nearby restaurant. “Do you mind walking for about 10 minutes?” he asked us. “I do not have my car here. I always use a bike to come to the laboratory.”
So we walked to very nice small restaurant. We enjoyed our lunch very much. The food was excellent, and our conversation was exciting.
It was 3:00 PM when we left the restaurant. The driver was waiting for us and took us to the hotel. On the next morning we took a bus to Brussels airport and departed to Paris, to fly back to Brazil.
We did not forget our pleasant lunch with Dr. Paul Janssen.
When I went to Zürich for a medical meeting organized by Prof. Ugo Fish, I was invited to visit Janssen Pharmaceutica, in Belgium, the laboratory that had developed cinnarizine.
So, after the meeting, my wife and I flew from Zürich to Brussels to visit the laboratory. For some reason we thought that it was near Brussels, but we were mistaken.
As soon as we crossed the passport control in Brussels’ airport we saw a man with a small billboard saying “Janssen” and we went in his direction. He checked our names and took us to a Mercedes limousine. Then he took off, left Brussells and rode for about forty minutes on a fine road. He did not speak English nor French, only Flemish, so we could not talk. And we had no idea about where he was taking us.
Then he stopped at a hotel and helped us to get registered. I asked the hotel people where we were and they told me we were in Antwerp. He left us there without any further explanations. The hotel was excellent and we were tired, so we slept for a while and watched TV. Then we went for a walk and dined at the hotel.
Next morning, at 8 o’clock, the hotel reception called us to say that the driver was waiting for us. He took us to a small town named Beerse, where Janssen Pharmaceutica was located. There we were received by a nice gentleman who spoke fluent English and told us briefly what our visit would be. We would go to several different departments and then he added: “Dr. Janssen will see you at 11:45 AM. He is a very busy man, so he can only give you fifteen minutes of his time.”
Then he guided us to the areas where men with computers attempted to discover new chemical structures; the laboratory where small amounts of new drugs were synthesized, according to these computer structures, for experimentation; the areas where experiments were conducted in mice and in dogs, and the large laboratories where industrial drugs production was developed and actually produced. We learned that they were synthesizing some 3,000 new drugs each year; two or three would lead to promising new pharmaceuticals.
At 11:45, promptly, we arrived at Dr. Paul Janssen’s office. This man was a genius, he personally changed the life of the patients with severe neurological and psychiatric disorders and his products also helped anesthesiologists and otologists.
And then we began to talk. He asked questions about our patients and how we were treating them. And then I mentioned that we were trying droperidol (another of his drugs) in patients with Menière’s disease, and I could see that he was very interested in this.
At noon he asked us to excuse him for a moment, went to his telephone and made two or three calls. He was speaking in Flemish, so we did not know what he was saying. Then he came back to us and invited us to have lunch with him at a nearby restaurant. “Do you mind walking for about 10 minutes?” he asked us. “I do not have my car here. I always use a bike to come to the laboratory.”
So we walked to very nice small restaurant. We enjoyed our lunch very much. The food was excellent, and our conversation was exciting.
It was 3:00 PM when we left the restaurant. The driver was waiting for us and took us to the hotel. On the next morning we took a bus to Brussels airport and departed to Paris, to fly back to Brazil.
We did not forget our pleasant lunch with Dr. Paul Janssen.
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