BMJ  2003;327:565 (6 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7414.565

Obituary

Louis Lasagna

Pioneer in clinical pharmacology, investigator of the placebo response, and medical school dean

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Louis Lasagna revolutionised the evaluation and regulation of drugs throughout the world. "Lou Lasagna created clinical pharmacology. He put academic rigour into the study of new drugs in humans," said Dr Kenneth Kaitin, who succeeded Lasagna as director of the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University.

Lasagna's testimony in US Congressional hearings led the Food and Drug Administration to demand proof of efficacy as well as safety of new drugs, Dr Kaitin told the BMJ. "He promoted randomised controlled clinical trials as the gold standard."

In his more than 50 years in medicine, Dr Lasagna was a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration and many other organisations in the United States and abroad, founded the Center for the Study of Drug Development, and served as dean of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University in Boston for nearly 20 years. He . . . [Full text of this article]

Janice Hopkins Tanne
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