Joseph Fortunak:
CLASS OF 1972
Merrillville High SchoolClass of 1972
Merrillville, IN
Joseph's Story
November 2020: And now we have (likely) a Covid-19 vaccine. Two new drugs (AT-527 and EIDD-2801/MK-4882) are looking promising for those who are infected. Perhaps we are dodging a nasty bullet this time. At the same time, prescriptions for depression/anxiety drugs in the US are up 40% since April. And the national debt has skyrocketed this year. Both of the "new drugs" were taken off the shelf and originally invented for other purposes. And the vaccine came from Pfizer and wasn't funded by "Operational Warp Speed."
What I want for Christmas is a Congress and White House that work together for the good of America. End the BS invective. It wasn't invented by Donald Trump, nor by Democrats who couldn't stomach him. My vote from now on is for "Advise and Consent". The hell with hypothetical. We aren't a socialist country or a fascist one. Let's be run by people who go to Washington to do good for us. Everett Dirksen and LBJ - they shared very little common ground in politics but they came together for the good of the country.
September 2020: I thought that Valsartan, Losartan, Ranitidine were causing cancers. Then I saw the statistics for the presence of NMDAs in processed meats. And grilled sausage! A thousand fold more than in these drugs. Are we actually giving ourselves cancer so much more from how we process our foods? Wow; teaching college online. What an interesting proposition. It's kinda cool teaching University faculty in Egypt on Thursday mornings. It's nice to be working again at the University. Some days I think the students get more this way with the more direct conversation. Then I see attendance slowly decreasing on Zoom lectures. If you're paying tuition, you're staying at home, and the pressure of the commute it totally removed - good God, shouldn't you at least open up your laptop and go to class? I guess it will be apparent how many people are listening to the recordings after the first exams... I don't know about anybody else, but I have not heard back from the state unemployment bureau from my application in April.
2020: There is something called COVID2019. This includes an assessment of the vulnerabilities of the US and other countries to being sole-sourced from China for many building blocks of essential medicines. Naturally, this has a focus on the Corona Virus, but it is just as relevant to issues such as trade wars. Most antibiotics - penicillins, cephalosporins, macrolides, amino acid macrolides, tetracyclines - are dependent upon sourcing from China. If China ever decided to stop exporting to the US, within 3-4 months people would be dying for lack of medicines. It was more profitable and now it's taxed less for producers to manufacture overseas. And China is the lowest-priced. Nowadays they are the only ones with the capabilities.
Why does the world seem more depressing than it was in 1972? Is it because we are older and our range of possibilities is reduced? Or have we just forgotten Vietnam, inflation, Nixon... Just returned from Ethiopia, Israel, India. Visited a good friend at Cipla in Mumbai (Dr. Yusuf Hamied). My hero for creating access to medicines for poor countries; along with his best friend the late Mother Theresa. Still a Prof. at Howard University (Chemistry, PharmSci) in DC. Still CSO at OneQor Pharmaceutical - a cannabis company. Again, if someone in 1972 had told me I'd work in a cannabis company I would have thought they were crazy or I'd be "breaking bad". I'm blessed to work with the TB Alliance, US Pharmacopeia and USAID in Africa. Still teach in Nigeria and other African countries. Beats working for a living. Painfully, in this age I oppose frivolous excessive patents on medicines that keep prices sky-high in the US. But then I also support patents that promote real innovation - as opposed to being ripped off by China (eg), During winters (as now in February), I often think I'd rather live in Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro where every day is warm and it's peaceful - and no one pays much attention to politics. God Bless us every one!
It's awfully nice to see something posted about everyone's lives - so many interesting people and so many stories. Of course the whole world is paranoid these days about revealing anything personal (as am I), but it's lovely to see the wonderful things people are doing. I guess we grew up OK...
2019; I recently became the chief scientific officer of a CBD/cannabidiol company known as OneQor. I'm very surprised at how many types of pain, inflammation, anxiety our clinical trials are showing improvement. Controlling the quality and the reliability so that people (even doctors) can understand a safe, useful dose is the objective. But of course there is no THC in this so the there is no euphoric effect. Shockingly, the amount of interest in CBD from the folks I work with in Africa is huge. We hope to fill an empty facility in Africa that used to make malaria med's with CBD to create several thousand high-paying jobs in agriculture and extraction.
201j8: It's surprising and saddening to see from Linda Libician and Nick Poulos the list of how many classmates have passed away; God Bless them all, I hope there is a heaven and they are now looking after us. I am still working; as a Professor and in several countries, mostly in Africa but some work in India and China; largely promoting countries making their own affordable medicines with assured quality.
August 2018: India. Mumbai has roughly 25 million people and about 60% of them have access to toilets with sewage. Can you imagine 10 million people per day, eliminating on average 2/3 kilogram of solid waste, and it's going into the immediate environment as raw sewage (6,600 MT/day)? I visited at a palliative care center (cancer) in Patalganga as part of my trip. Not the Taj Mahal but it is impressive how Indians (Hindu and Muslim) maintain a sense of family and community throu...Expand for more
ghout life. A challenge for us in the hustle-bustle "capitalism is everything" US. There is a wonderful little bakery in Pune just around the corner from my usual hotel. For 15 years the owner has been noting - "please don't buy too many of my famous scones for tea, I only bake so many and when I run out, no one can get them until tomorrow." And it's neat to visit a McDonald's with nothing on the menu containing animal products.
Personal Details: Married, 3 children. 1 biologic, 1 each adopted from Guatemala and Western Samoa. Wife, Theresa (Philadelphia). Education: Purdue (undergrad; 1976) Wisconsin (PhD, 1981) Cambridge, UK(1981-1983)
2017 and still alive - Just returned from India, Nigeria/Ethiopia in a typical Summer to teach local medicines manufacturing. We now use safe, natural ingredients to lower the dose and toxicity of critical medicines. Still a professor at Howard University in Washington, DC. Consulting with NGOs and the World Health Organization / UNAIDS on global access to medicines and making medicines more affordable - including in the US. Teaching in Africa - enabling local pharmaceutical manufacturing and eliminating counterfeit medicines: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, and, Hepatitis. Thank goodness I get to travel to many of the countries I work with/for. Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Nicaragua, India, China, Brazil, etc.
October 2016 - China. Treatment for HIV is free from the Chinese government. But people die faster in China because they get a regimen that was the US standard of care in 1997. The Chinese government cannot afford to give away drugs whose patents they observe because of price. They make and sell these drugs (US FDA inspected) that are the standard of care and sell them to Africa through USAID and Global Fund programs!! Chinese pharma companies cut their prices to a minimum to provide medicines to Africa. Large, global pharma companies do not do this because the market is too small for them. SO, how is it that the US needs to catch up to China in helping poor people? IT's not simple. There are companies like Gilead Sciences and GSK who do wonderful things like granting licenses for generic versions of their drugs to be made and sold from India and China to poor countries. But we just throw money at poor countries and then forget them. China is helping them develop. When China builds their roads, hospitals, and schools - who do you think they remember, China or the US?
September, 2016: Ethiopia - what a country! Addis Ababa is 2500 meters in elevation so the first few days are puffing after the first few fights of stairs unless you're in extremely good shape. Nice people. Beautiful countryside. United Nations and World Development bank next to each other in Addis Ababa. Need training for the Ethiopian equivalent of the US FDA and desperate need to access very cheap generic versions of meds for hepatitis B. 5 million infections and 1 million people in critical need of access in Ethiopia alone, with several other countries in East Africa with a high disease burden. Hep B accounts for more deaths than malaria in these countries. And treatment can be for $40/year (rather than $15,000 in the US).
June, 2016. Nigeria is a mess. Boko Haram in the North (thank goodness I teach in the South) and people blowing up the oil pipelines because locals don't share in the oil revenues. Oil prices are still low globally, and output is way down. Oil is 70% of government's budget so things are very tight. Many people not getting paid or only partial salary - includes University professors. the Nira was devalued 50% relative to the dollar just before I got here in June 5th. Electricity erratic, internet erratic, water - erratic. Wow; such a rich country and yet such a mess. Wonderful people, wonderful education system...
I met Dale Pupillo (also class of '72) in Washington early 2016. What an amazing story, working for years with the Secret Service protecting Presidents, Vice Presidents, etc.
Until 2004 I worked in "Big Pharma." I am now a professor at Howard U., a Historically Black University in Washington, DC. My research makes essential medicines available and less expensive in developing countries. The picture above is from NgoroNgoro crater, some other pictures from Africa, Brazil, and China are here. For those who'd like to visit Kilimanjaro, Olduvai gorge, and the Serengeti I know an excellent guide - leave a note and I'll put you in contact. And please then visit us, too, at the St. Luke Foundation / Kilimanjaro School of Pharmacy in Moshi, TZ. In 2013 I/we (TNI Bio Tech) received the African Union award for Social Responsibility. We are also a United Nations Center of Excellence in Africa and received awards from the US FDA and the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization group in 2014. Just returned (June, 2014) from 3 weeks in Nigeria. Very glad not to have been near any Ebola virus or terrorist activity; transfer of our Industrial Pharmacy program to the University of Ibadan builds sustainability for increasing medicines access worldwide. This sure as hell beats having a real job.
I am most fortunate, my work perhaps does some good; my spouse is wonderful and supportive, my children are good friends and I like them as people.
I remember high school as very unpleasant - I had social anxiety - but, I look back on everyone with great affection. Certainly I wish I had been more mature when I was younger - but perhaps we all feel that way. I revere our many outstanding teachers; including Gran & Spur, Talmadge, Vermillion, Hutchison, Armontrout, Drescher,,. As a class, I think we all "did good" - I am in awe of some of the things that our classmates have accomplished. I hope that all of you are happy and in excellent health. You are very welcome to contact me if you are visiting DC or Moshi, Tanzania. God Bless you all.
With best wishes always.
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