Bruce Roth

Bruce D. Roth (born June 1954) is an American organic and medicinal chemist that trained at Iowa State University and the University of Rochester, who, at the age of 32, discovered atorvastatin, the statin-class drug sold as Lipitor that would become the largest-selling drug in pharmaceutical history (as of 2003). His honours include being named a 2008 Hero of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society, and being chosen as the Perkin Medal awardee, the highest honour given in the U.S. chemical industry, by the Society of Chemical Industry, American section in 2013.

Brude D. Roth was born in June 1954. He received his undergraduate degree from St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia, in 1976.^{[with whom?]} He then went to Iowa State University as a doctoral student under George Kraus, receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1981. He then spent a year as a Postdoctoral Fellow with A.S. Kende at the University of Rochester.

Roth has held a number of positions in his career, from "Scientist" (medicinal chemist) through to vice president-level positions in drug discovery, and his accomplishments in his career include the discovery of the molecule atorvastatin, which would become the drug Lipitor.

In 1982, 28-year-old Roth began work as a medicinal chemist for the Parke Davis research area of Warner-Lambert, becoming the chemistry co-chair of the statins effort, with biologist Roger Newton, in 1984. By 1985, he was at Warner-Lambert's Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was promoted to Research Associate in 1986, Senior Research Associate in 1988, Section Director in 1990, Director of Atherosclerosis and Exploratory Chemistry in 1992, and Senior Director of Atherosclerosis, Inflammation and Exploratory Chemistry in 1993. By the early 1990s he held managerial positions and was no longer doing laboratory work. In 2000 Warner-Lambert acquired Parke-Davis. He was appointed Vice President of Chemistry just prior to the merger between Warner-Lambert and Pfizer in 2000 and remained in that role as a part of Pfizer Global Research and Development in Ann Arbor, Michigan until 2007. He then joined Genentech in San Francisco, California as Vice President of Discovery Chemistry.

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