Boehringer Ingelheim prize winner announced

Boehringer Ingelheim has revealed the winner of the 2009 Heinrich Wieland Prize, an award that the organisation sponsors.

This year’s accolade has been given to professor Steven Ley of Cambrighe University in recognition of his work in the areas of synthesis, structural analysis and biological characterisation of natural products.

As part of the prize, Mr Ley has received 50,000 euros (44,839 pounds) as his outstanding contributions, which comprise the total syntheses of more than 120 compounds, were highlighted.

He has also developed numerous techniques for the production of pharmaceutical lead structures, as well as devising micro and macro-flow reactors, which are essential for – and revolutionised – multi-step chemical syntheses.

The Heinrich Wieland Prize is awarded by an independent board of trustees and has been running since 1964.

This news comes after Boehringer Ingelheim received a positive opinion for the approval of Micardis (telmisartan) from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency this week.