The Alejandro Zaffaroni Page

US Patent document to Baker et al., July 24, 1990, references US patent documents issued in 1971 to Zaffaroni for "Prolonged Activity Nicotine Patch."

Alza and the nicotine patch: "Alza was formed in 1968 when research head Alejandro Zaffaroni left Syntex when the company ignored his interest in developing new ways to deliver drugs. Consequently, he formed Alza and began developing a system for transmitting drugs through the skin. In 1978 Ciba-Geigy bought 80% of Alza. This brought capital to Alza, but Ciba-Geigy put off potential customers and competitors of Ciba-Geigy. In 1982 Alza bought back all but 10% of its stock and allowed Ciba-Geigy to keep technology rights. In 1988, Alza established Bio-Electro Systems to develop new technologies.

"Prior to the 1990's, Alza focused almost exclusively on product development activities with joint developments with large pharmaceutical companies. Starting in the 1990's Alza began to build its own sales and marketing capabilities. In 1991, Marion Merrell Dow and Alza released the first Nicotine patch. Presently NicoDerm CQ, which is the number one smoking cessation product, uses Alza's technology...." (Wiscofund 2001)

San Francisco law firm Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe: "1968: Heller Ehrman Shareholder Julian Stern negotiates with Syntex Corporation for the services of Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni, along with concepts and technology that Syntex does not want to pursue and Dr. Zaffaroni does. Upon completion of negotiations, Stern helps to set up ALZA Corporation, which will go on to pioneer drug delivery systems for the pharmaceutical industry." [I.e., the nicotine patch.] "2001: Heller Ehrman represents ALZA in its $12 billion merger with pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. The firm had represented ALZA since its incorporation in 1968." Other clients of the firm include Cetus and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. (History. Heller Ehrman LLP. Accessed 10/21/07.) This firm has family ties to the San Francisco anti-smoking mafia.

Julian N. Stern

"Julian N. Stern Shareholder Education New York University (B.S., summa cum laude, 1946); Yale Law School (LL.B., 1949); Officer, Yale Law Journal.... Mr. Stern was the incorporator of ALZA Corporation and has served as its Secretary and a director since its founding until its merger with Johnson and Johnson. He was the incorporator of Affymax and served as its Secretary and a managing director from inception until its acquisition by Glaxo. He was also the incorporator of Cetus Corporation and served as its Secretary since incorporation and as a director until its acquisition by Chiron and has been an advisory director of Chiron. He is the incorporator of A.P. Pharma, Inc. and Maxygen, Inc. and has served as their Secretary since their incorporation, as well as being secretary and director of a number of privately held high-technology companies." (Julian N. Stern bio. Heller Ehrman LLP. Accessed 07-22-07.)

"DepoMed, Inc. today announced that Julian N. Stern was elected to its Board of Directors. Mr. Stern (76) is a partner and past Chair of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP, where he has been involved in the biotech industry since its beginnings. Mr. Stern has been intimately involved in the organization of a number of innovative companies, including ALZA Corporation, Cetus, Affymax, Affymetrix and Maxygen. Along the way, he devised creative development and licensing strategies and methods of financing for his clients that are now accepted industry practice. Mr. Stern has worked for the San Francisco-based international law firm since 1956 and was the first attorney to staff its Silicon Valley office. Mr. Stern received his law degree from Yale Law School. Mr. Stern currently serves as a director of ALZA Corporation and a number of private companies, and has served as DepoMed's Corporate Secretary since its formation in 1995." (DepoMed Elects Julian Stern to Its Board. Business Wire. New York: May 1, 2001.)

Julian Stern of Orinda, Calif., was a vice president of the Contra Costa County division of the American Cancer Society at Walnut Creek. (Contra Costa Cancer Society Drive Hits All-Time High. Oakland Tribune, Sep. 20, 1967; Youth Can Stop Cigarettes, Says Cancer Society Chief. Oakland Tribune, Sep. 27, 1969; Cancer Society Officers Named. Oakland Tribune, Oct. 1, 1970; New Officers for Cancer Society. Oakland Tribune, Sep. 27, 1973; Record Year for Cancer Unit. Oakland Tribune, Sep. 25, 1974.)

Cetus

Newspaper article on the $85 million financing of Cetus, "via private placements mostly arranged by AE Ponting of Blythe, Eastman Dillon & Co." Mentioned are Zaffaroni; Joshua Lederberg; and Donald A. Glaser of UC Berkeley. (Little black box of Cetus, by Sidney P. Allen. San Francisco Chronicle 1974 Feb. 12.)

Philip Morris memo from Charles R. Wall to Murray H. Bring, Sep. 14, 1993, RE: Philip Morris Support for Basic Research, concerning funding for the Scripps Research Institute, of which Alejandro Zaffaroni was a board member.

1991 biography of Alejandro Zaffaroni. 1941 BS from University of Rochester, "under the auspices of a scholarship granted by the Institute of International Education;" National Institutes of Health Research Fellow until 1951. Joined Syntex Corp. in 1951 as Associate Director of Biological Research and eventually became President of the firm. He resigned from Syntex in mid-1968 to establish ALZA Corporation. Founded and became Chaiman of the Board of Directors of DNAX Ltd., part of which was acquired by Schering-Plough, with Zaffaroni on the Policy Board. Founded and became Managing Director of Affymax, N.V. in 1988.

"SMOKELESS CIGARETTES -- URGENT WARNING ON PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD" Zaffaroni wrote a hysterical letter to President Ronald Reagan in 1988, claiming that the new smokeless cigarette being developed by RJR could be laced with cocaine and supposedly cause instant cocaine addiction.

Alza Corporation

1994: JP Morgan & Co. owns 10.47%, Ciba-Geigy Corp. 5.80%, and Zaffaroni 1.17%. The longest-serving director (1969) besides Zaffaroni is Rudolph A. Peterson, the retired president and CEO and honorary director of Bank America Corporation and Bank of America, and retired administator of the United Nations Development Program. Lasker Foundation director Robert J. Glaser, who was a director of Hewlett-Packard from 1971 to 1991, and retired Hewlett-Packard Company Vice President and COO Dean O. Morton have been on the board of Alza since 1987.

2001: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter owns 7.02%, American Express Financial Corp. owns 6.10%, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. owns 5.80% of Alza. William R. Brody, the president of the Johns Hopkins University, joined the board in 1996, while Robert J. Glaser retired in 1998. Dr. I Craig Henderson, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 1980 to 1992, the FDA from 1989 to 1992, and University of California - San Francisco, joined the board in 1999 when Alza acquired SEQUUS.
Johnson & Johnson acquired Alza in 2001.

Affymetrix / Affymax N.V.

1997: Affymetrix is 33.8% owned by Glaxo Wellcome plc; College Retirement Equities Fund owns 6.7%; and Alejandro C. Zaffaroni owns 1.8%. Vernon R. Loucks Jr., CEO and Chairman of Baxter International, and John A. Young, retired President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and director of Lucent Technologies, are fellow directors with Zaffaroni, who was no longer a director in 1998.

Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 15843 / Aug. 12, 1998. SEC v. Alejandro C. Zaffaroni, Eugene Farber, Nicolas Vida, Alea Rosa Arzate, Yolanda Rocco, Ines Romero, and Pedro Zaffaroni, Civil Action No. C-98 20843. The SEC filed an insider trading action against Zaffaroni for violating securities laws by disseminating information about the acquisition of Affymax by Glaxo in January 1995. "Zaffaroni's friends and family members profited by purchasing Affymax securities before the acquisition was publicly announced." They were fined a total of $1,849,953 in penalties, disgorgement of profits, and interest.

2002: GlaxoSmithKline owns 13.32% and OrbiMed Advisors LLC owns 5.22%. Vernon R. Loucks and John A. Young continue as directors.

2002 UCSF Award

Zaffaroni was one of four UCSF Medal recipients in 2002. Other 2002 awadees included Harold P. Freeman, a veritable fixture on the NCI's President's Cancer Panel; Dorothy P. Rice, one of the main originators of the Big Lie that smoking is an economic burden (which she and her ilk would never have gotten away with if the US Government were not an utterly corrupt secret dictatorship controlled by the Lasker Syndicate political machine); and Clinton's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala. Past awardees include Lasker Foundation trustees Purnell Choppin and Robert J. Glaser, Mary Lasker's stooge Philip R. Lee; Reagan's Surgeon General C. Everett Koop; and Dianne Feinstein. (UCSF Medal recipients and faculty award winners to be honored at April 25 Founders Day observance. University of San Francisco News, April 1, 2002.)

cast 07-27-07