[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 79 (Friday, June 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE RECOGNITION OF DR. SIDNEY PESTKA, 2001 NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY 
                                LAUREATE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 13, 2002

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this opportunity to 
congratulate Dr. Sidney Pestka who was named the 2001 National Medal of 
Technology Laureate for his pioneering achievements in the field of 
biotechnology. Dr. Pestka is from my district and joins us from the 
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine & 
Dentistry of New Jersey in Piscataway, New Jersey.
  Mr. Chairman, in 1969, Dr. Sidney Pestka began a project to determine 
what interferon was--a substance that held the possibility of curing 
viral diseases, diseases that defied treatments, diseases that 
challenged the ingenuity of medicine for centuries, diseases including 
hepatitis, influenza, Ebola, Dengue, Yellow Fever, West Nile, and even 
the common cold. The possibility that a single medicine could treat all 
or at least many viral diseases was alluring. After a few months 
evaluating the scientific basis and potential of interferon, Dr. Pestka 
began to translate this dream into reality.
  For the next seventeen years, Dr. Pestka made a remarkable series of 
discoveries and developments, often bucking prevailing beliefs and 
designing innovative solutions to problems along the way to success. 
His achievements carried out at the Roche Institute led to numerous 
medical applications including cloning of the human genes, development 
of immunological assays with monoclonal antibodies and medical 
application of interferon for viral diseases, to name only a few. In 
1986, Dr. Pestka's dreams became reality when the Food and Drug 
Administration (FDA) approved the interferon that he developed.
  The approval of interferon by the FDA was significant, not only 
because it allowed Dr. Pestka's development to be applied to treat 
viral diseases but also because it prepared the pathway for many other 
biotherapeutic agents now used in the clinic and stimulated the 
creation and development of today's extensive biotechnology industry. 
Dr. Pestka's achievements are the basis of several U.S. and foreign 
patents and interferon is now a major product of several U.S. and 
foreign companies. The market for interferon is expected to exceed $7 
billion by 2003.
  In addition to interferon's commercial impact, there was no general 
antiviral therapy available before Dr. Pestka began his work on 
interferon; today, interferon is the first and only general antiviral 
therapy. Interferon is used to treat hepatitis B and C, diseases that 
afflict 300 million people worldwide. Today, interferon is used for the 
treatment of cancers such as metastatic malignant melanoma, kidney and 
bladder cell carcinoma, some leukemias, AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma, 
and multiple sclerosis. Mr. Chairman, many individuals are now alive 
and well after treatment with interferon as a result of Dr. Pestka's 
achievements.
  Finally, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to point out that the potential of 
interferon has caught the imagination of the public with many 
newspaper, magazine and journal articles about interferon over the past 
twenty years. Most scientists in academia do not bring achievements in 
research directly into commercial products with special considerations 
for scale up, environmental impact, economy, efficiency and efficacy. 
Dr. Pestka has bridged this gap by making seminal achievements in all 
these avenues from concept, to basic research and to practical 
application. He has fostered new industries in multiple areas, 
developed new medicines for previously untreatable diseases, and 
brought new hope to those afflicted. These pioneering achievements were 
prefaced and followed by many other basic scientific discoveries in 
chemistry, biochemistry, genetic engineering and molecular biology from 
the genetic code and protein biosynthesis to interferons, cytokines, 
receptors and cell signaling.
  In closing, Dr. Pestka's achievements in innovation and translation 
provide a role model for this and future generations.

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