Joseph Lombardino

Joseph Lombardino, who leveraged a free New York City education to achieve a PhD in organic chemistry, and then invented one of the world’s most successful drugs for arthritis, died on April 16, 2018 at his home in Manhattan. Born in Brooklyn to George and Santina Lombardino, Italian immigrants, Dr. Lombardino attended Brooklyn’s public schools and became the first to attend college in his family. He graduated from (at the time, tuition-free) Brooklyn College in 1954. He earned a PhD in organic chemistry at Brooklyn Polytechnic University three years later and took a job at Pfizer’s research operation in Brooklyn. In 1959 he moved to Pfizer’s new Central Research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut.

Within a few years he would synthesize a new class of compounds called the oxicams, earning a patent for one member of this class, piroxicam, which showed the most promise as a powerful anti-inflammatory drug. Piroxicam was branded as Feldene and became the leading arthritis medicine in the world for almost a decade. Dozens of scientists and administrators at Pfizer contributed to the development process for Feldene, and tens of millions of dollars were spent on clinical trials demonstrating Feldene’s safety and efficacy. “People have asked me what kept me going for all those frustrating years,” Dr. Lombardino recalled later. “My answer—the hope of reaching the ultimate goal of finding a new medicine that actually helps patients.” Feldene earned Pfizer more than seven billion dollars, justifying the move from Brooklyn to the Central Research facilities in Connecticut, and keeping the company independent through a time of mergers and acquisitions. Another oxicam—meloxicam—is still a widely used anti-inflammatory in veterinary medicine, and Feldene continues to be a first-line treatment for certain cancers in dogs.

Dr. Lombardino closely followed Feldene’s lengthy road from synthesis to market, becoming an expert on the lengthy drug development process. He established a new Development Planning Department at Pfizer in 1986, which had as its goal the tracking of all drug candidates for the company. After 42 years with the company, Dr. Lombardino retired as Senior Director, Operations Planning.

Dr. Lombardino was the 1989 recipient of the Eli Whitney Award given by the Connecticut Patent Law Association for “significant contributions to law or science,” and was a Distinguished Alumnus of Polytechnic University of New York (now the New York University Tandon School of Engineering).

Dr. Lombardino met his wife Roberta (née Meyer) of 57 years at Pfizer in Brooklyn, and together they raised three children, Anna-Marie Melchreit, George, and Anthony. Mrs. Lombardino passed away two days after Joseph, also in New York. They are survived by their children, Anna-Marie’s husband Richard Melchreit, Anthony’s wife Ingrid Lombardino, and Joseph’s sister Rosalie Tinnirello, as well as their two grandchildren, Robert Melchreit and Daniel Melchreit. They were predeceased by George’s wife Nina Lombardino. Donations in Dr. Lombardino’s memory can be made to the Lyme Land Trust, Inc., PO Box

1002, Lyme, CT 06371, or at www.lymelandtrust.org.

**COVER PHOTO**

Joseph Lombardino (center), with future Nobel laureate E.J. Corey (left) and future Pfizer president Gerald Laubach (right) in 1962.