Gedeon Richter had visited and gained experience in many pharmacies before opening his own laboratory in the Sas Pharmacy on Üllői Street. At the beginning of his career he produced organotherapeutic products from animal organs. Later, with the discovery of adrenaline, he took these medicines to a new level, and the demand for them became even bigger. His first organotherapeutic product, adrenaline, an extract of the adrenal hormone that increases blood pressure, is still used in medicine today.

Richter is also credited with the invention of Kalmopyrin, patented in 1912, and Hyperol, an antiseptic tablet. The solid compound preserving hydrogen peroxide with urea, known as Hyperol, played a major role during the First World War. It became standard equipment in the army and its use was made mandatory in medical tents. In 1911, he produced the most stable water-soluble salt of acetic acid, calcium acetylsalicylate, which is still one of the best-known medicines in Hungary, named Kalmopyrin.

Organotherapeutics, standardised herbal agents and the first synthetic products (Kalmopyrin and Hyperol) established the reputation of Richter Pharmaceuticals and made the company one of the leading international suppliers.

Nowadays, the Gedeon Richter pharmaceutical company continues to make new investments. In addition to the mother company in Hungary, it currently has manufacturing subsidiaries in 5 countries. The Richter Group continues to place great emphasis on innovation, and the global importance of its core profile is demonstrated by its achievements in original research and development.

Tú Yōuyōu’s first job was a pharmacological study of Chinese lobelia that has long been used in Chinese medicine to treat a flatworm disease. In the early 1960s, China was facing a severe malaria epidemic and the Chinese government was seeking an urgent solution to the disease. Then, Tú Yōuyōu, began researching the extract of a Chinese herb, wormwood, and in 1972 discovered the active ingredient, the artemisinin, which is effective in killing malaria parasites. With this, she made an extraordinary contribution to revolutionizing the treatment of the disease.

She was awarded the Nobel Prize for her discovery, but she herself remained humble and genuinely committed to her medical research.

The artemisinin and its derivatives have rapidly become a key component of malaria treatment, and made a significant contribution to reducing malaria morbidity and mortality worldwide.

The work of Tú Yōuyōu reinforces the importance of the Asian scientific community and its contribution to addressing global health issues. The medicine she discovered is still a key tool in the fight against malaria, especially in countries where the disease is common and threatens people’s lives.

Together with Albert Claude, George Emil Palade was mainly involved in the electron microscopic study of tissues and cells. One of his most outstanding contributions was his research on the cell surface, membranes and the cell skeleton. Palade revealed the structure of the mitochondrion, showing that microsomes, previously thought to be mitochondrial fragments, belong to the cell’s internal transport system. He discovered ribosomes. He studied the structure of synapses between nerve cells, and developed new laboratory techniques for tissue sample preparation and fractional centrifugation of cells.

In a paper published in 1950, he wrote in detail about the role of ribosomes and the endoplasmic reticulum in the synthesis of cellular proteins. He also used autoradiographic techniques to follow the path of the proteins produced within tissues, and looked at the permeability of capillary walls. In 1964, together with Ewald Weibel from Switzerland, he described the Weibel-Palade bodies that perform storage functions in the cells of the inner walls of blood vessels.

Throughout his career, George Emil Palade has received numerous awards and honours, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1974. His work revolutionized cell research and contributed to a deeper understanding of modern biology.

Carol Davila was a prominent figure in Romanian medicine, whose work and contributions to medical education and practice have left a profound mark on Romania and medicine as a whole.

Through his work to modernize medical schools and hospitals, he reformed medical education in Romania and helped establish the country’s first medical university, which still bears his name.

Davila has also made significant contributions to the field of medical researches. He has written numerous medical articles that have published important knowledge and findings and helped the advancement of medical science. One of his most memorable achievements was the successful cranioplasty of 1864, which was a new milestone in Romanian medicine.

Gábor Rácz’s scientific activities mainly focused on study of the histology, chemistry, occurrence, cultivation, and effects of medicinal plants, as well as on folk medicine, natural history and the history of medicine. He has written several papers on the conservation and data on the Transylvanian medicinal plant flora, and on the training of pharmacists and pharmaceutical literature in Transylvania. He also frequently lectured and published on renowned pharmacists and botanists.

Gábor Rácz’s favorite topics were the plants of folk/traditional medicine, and the knowledge of treatments used outside the health network, based on observations, experience and traditions. He took part in several ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal collecting journeys, documented the knowledge he gained and tried to incorporate it into the research group’s work in Târgu Mureș.

With his work and achievements, Gábor Rácz brought the scientific knowledge of Transylvanian medicinal plants of the 20th century to its peak.

The study of medicine was a major part of Avicenna’s life, and he wrote a total of 450 books, most of them on the subject of medicine. His best-known medical writing was the “Canon” that comprised five books, containing the physiological and pathological concepts essential to scientific medicine at the time.

His observations showed that the human body can be in three states: ill, healthy or in between. He paid particular attention to the study of the unnatural, but also to the effects of weather and the seasons on people. In his medical writings, he emphasized health advice, prescribing diets, exercise and rest, and also drew attention to the influence of the psychological state on health.

In addition, he also wrote about the internal organs and their function, and paid particular attention to eye diseases. He also dealt with obstetrics, infant care, gynecology, surgery, burns, bone diseases, infections and antidotes. Not least, his descriptions of the mental health are also outstanding.

Avicenna’s “Canon” has been used as a medical textbook throughout the European Middle Ages and modern times, and he himself has been called the prince of physicians.

Victor Babeș started his scientific career at the Pathological Anatomy Laboratory in Budapest, and was appointed Professor of Histopathology at the Faculty of General Medicine in Budapest in 1885. In the same year, he discovered parasitic tick spores causing a rare and serious disease, babesiosis. He also gave the name babesiosis, first described in 1888, when hemoglobinuria was caused in Romanian cattle. The infection resulted in tens of thousands of cattle deaths.

Babeș had a wide range of scientific endeavours. He was the first to detect the presence of tuberculosis bacilli in the urine of infected patients, discovered cell inclusions in rabies-infected nerve cells, and was the promoter of the concept of morphopathology of the infectious process, a medical guideline based on the anatomical synthesis of bacteriology and pathology.

Much of his research was on parasites and bacteria, and in 1885 he published the world’s first thesis on bacteriology. Babeș is credited with the development of vaccines against cholera and rabies, and his work also had a major impact on veterinary medicine. He produced a serum against diphtheria and was also extensively involved in research into tuberculosis, typhoid and leprosy. He published more than 1000 scientific publications and 25 monographs in the field of microbiology and pathology.

Mátyás Rozsnyay is credited with the invention of tasteless quinine, which was a major advance at the time, especially in pediatrics.

He started producing the tasteless quinine at the encouragement of the local doctor in Zomba. In 1863, he initiated the marketing of quinine candies (quinine bonbon), but his request was rejected, as his work was considered a pharmaceutical bungling. In 1867, József Koczianovich, a pharmacist from Gyöngyös, offered 20 gold pieces as a prize to anyone who could produce quinine without a bitter taste, but with the same effect as the original, which could be given to children. As a result Rozsnyay continued his research on the antipyretic drug. A year later, he gave a presentation of his work and presented the product, but the tender was not successful because the product did not reach the trial stage in time.

It was the 1869 itinerant convention in Fiume that brought Rozsnyay recognition. He managed to submit the preparation to the judging committee on time and handed out a piece of the pleasant-tasting candy containing 0.07 grams of quinine to each of the convention participants. Subsequently, the tasteless quinine soon became a recognized medicine.

János Kabay became known worldwide as the “father of morphine production in Hungary”. Morphine is still produced from poppy straw according to his method.

His first major discovery is known as the “green process”, through which in 1925 he succeeded to extract morphine from the still green poppy plant by avoiding the opium phase. He later patented his method and founded the Alkaloida Chemical Factory in 1927. However, at the beginning, the factory had financial difficulties due to the costs of morphine production, so Kabay began to look for a more economical method.

In 1931, he and his wife developed the so-called “dry process”, which revolutionized the production of morphine. The new method enabled the factory to produce more and more morphine from the previously worthless, threshed poppy straw. His invention became a world sensation, solving a problem that persisted for hundreds of years in wealthy, well-equipped French and German laboratories.

Galenus was the founder of several medical disciplines, such as anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology and neurology. His understanding of medicine was greatly influenced by the theory of bodily fluids that was widely accepted by then, dividing people into different temperaments, and which based by Hippocrates’s work, was first to summarized by Galenus.

During his travels, he came across a number of studies recording the results of vivisection on prisoners. He also learned a lot about the importance of nutrition, fitness, hygiene and prevention.

As dissection of the human body was still forbidden at the time, his anatomical studies were based on dissections of monkeys and pigs. His research remained unchallenged until 1543, when the first scientific papers on human dissections were published. His physiological teachings remained accepted until 1628, when William Harvey published his theory of the circulation of the blood. Medical students were taught many theories based on the works of Galenus up until the 19^th century.