CH₃CH₃

David T. Wong

1935– · Hong Kong-American · Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis (1968–2000)

David T. Wong is a Hong Kong-born American biochemist who joined Eli Lilly in 1968 and worked there until 2000. He joined the company's antidepressant programme in 1971 and proposed re-screening a series of 3-phenoxy-3-phenylpropylamines — synthesised by Bryan Molloy and Klaus Schmiegel from a diphenhydramine starting point — for selective serotonin uptake inhibition using a synaptosome method developed by Solomon Snyder; the May 1972 assay identified LY-110140, later named fluoxetine, as the most selective of the series. He was co-author on the 1974 paper that first described it and a named inventor on later Lilly compounds. Fluoxetine reached the US market in 1988; it was the first commercially successful SSRI, not the first SSRI, since zimelidine had been marketed in 1982.

Compounds credited overall: four or five reuptake inhibitors he is credited with identifying, of which fluoxetine and duloxetine are the ones that reached the market

Wikipedia

Compounds

Sort

5 credited across 2 classes · 2 with a page here

  • SNRIs
  • Nisoxetine discovered its activity, 1975 source

    First author on the 1975 Life Sciences paper identifying Lilly 94939 (nisoxetine) as a potent norepinephrine uptake inhibitor. Never marketed; now mainly a research tool. Same family caveat as atomoxetine — it is a selective NRI.

  • Atomoxetine discovered its activity, 1982 source

    First author on the 1982 J Pharmacol Exp Ther paper describing LY139603 (tomoxetine, later atomoxetine) as a norepinephrine uptake inhibitor without receptor affinity; Wikipedia's lead credits him with fluoxetine and atomoxetine jointly. Family note: it is a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, marketed for ADHD — 'SNRIs' is the closest family in the site's vocabulary but is not strictly accurate.

  • Duloxetine C18H19NOS discovered its activity, 1988 source

    Named inventor with David Robertson and Joseph Krushinski on US 4,956,388 (filed 1986, granted 1990), and first author on the 1988 Life Sciences paper describing the racemate LY227942 as a dual serotonin/norepinephrine uptake inhibitor. The (+)-enantiomer, LY248686, became duloxetine.

  • SSRIs
  • Fluoxetine C17H18F3NO discovered its activity, 1972 source

    Wong proposed re-testing the Molloy/Schmiegel series for serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine uptake; the assay that singled out LY-110140 was run in his group by Jong-Sir Horng in May 1972 and published in 1974 (Wong, Horng, Bymaster, Hauser, Molloy). He did not synthesise the compound — that was Molloy and Schmiegel — and the team is normally given as four, with Ray Fuller confirming the result in his p-chloroamphetamine rat model.

  • Dapoxetine discovered its activity source

    Wong is credited with dapoxetine in an Indiana University School of Medicine press release and in the compound list on his Wikipedia article, but no paper of his on dapoxetine is indexed in PubMed and no year or patent could be confirmed. Include only if a primary source turns up.

Reading

Tell us something