Visionary Researcher, Physician Mourned

Dr. Louis Lasagna – Dean Emeritus of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and drug research pioneer – died this week at age 80.

Boston [08.08.03] Dr. Lou Lasagna, dean emeritus of Tufts University's Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, died Aug. 6 of lymphoma. A pioneer of clinical pharmacology and the author of a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath, Lasagna spent more than five decades as an educator, physician and researcher. He was 80.

“There is almost nothing that we do on a day-to-day basis in clinical pharmacology and drug development that he has not influenced: controlled clinical trials, use of placebos, informed consent,” Tufts’ Dr. David Greenblatt – who holds an endowed chair at Tufts in Lasagna’s name – told The Boston Globe. “He’s the Sigmund Freud of clinical pharmacology.”

His 1954 article on the “placebo effect” in the American Journal of Medicine ushered in the concept that taking a pill – even if it doesn’t contain medicine – can help diminish a patient’s pain.

Internationally renowned for his research on drug development and testing, Lasagna played a critical role in shaping the pharmaceutical industry.

“In a number of articles for the popular press, he argued that before a drug received approval, it should undergo a randomized, placebo-controlled trial,” reported the Globe. “At the time, that approach was revolutionary, a fact that the editor of The Lancet magazine recognized in 1997, by including Dr. Lasagna’s article on a list of the world’s 27 most notable medical achievements since the time of Hippocrates, about 400 BC.”

Lasagna made numerous appearances before Congress to campaign for industry reforms.

“Lasagna gave crucial testimony to Congress in 1962 that resulted in major changes to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry,” reported the Associated Press. “After that, he was involved in many federal hearings and commissions on drug development.”

To many in the field, Lasagna was a pioneer and visionary.

“He was absolutely right and well ahead of his time,” Robert Temple, associate director for medical policy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told the Globe. “This made people carry out proper trials.”

But Lasagna wasn’t just an accomplished scientist – he was also a compassionate physician.

“[As a medical school professor, Lasagna] encouraged students to develop empathy toward their patients,” reported the Globe. “To that end, in 1964, Dr. Lasagna wrote an alternative to the Hippocratic oath that all doctors take upon receiving their degrees. His revised version, subsequently adopted by numerous medical schools, emphasizes doctors’ responsibilities to stress prevention over cure, to ask for help when needed, and to keep in mind the psychological aspects of disease.”

His ethics and dedication to medicine had a lasting impact on many of his colleagues.

“He was fiercely committed to ensuring that the advancement of science was an ethical enterprise,” Joan Rachlin, director of the group Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, told the Globe. “He cared certainly that the frontiers of science be advanced, but he cared equally that it be done with heart and humility. He really wanted science to be above reproach.”

For almost 20 years, Lasagna served as dean of Tufts’ Sackler School. He established the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development – the only program of its sort in the country.

“What he brought to the discussion was a tremendous knowledge of the clinical development process, but more importantly, he was one of the first to observe the relationship between regulation and innovation,” Tufts’ Kenneth Kaitin, director of the center, told the Globe.

It was Lasagna’s pragmatism that Peggy Newell, Tufts’ associate provost for research, remembers.

“He was a very decisive person,” she told the Globe. “If you brought hum an issue, a lot of people would take it and mull it over. He would think of solutions very quickly. He had a logical mind and an ability to solve problems.”

Lasagna is survived by his wife Helen, three sons, four daughters and eight grandchildren.