Rosenkranz, George

In the 1950s, under the leadership of George Rosenkranz, another Hungarian, and Carl Djerassi, an American, embarked on the road from nexus to core. By 1956 these two innovating pioneers in the steroid field were ready to license Norethindrone, the basic compound from which the contraceptive pill would ultimately be produced. At the same time, the Ogdon Corporation, a financial services firm, acquired the Mexico-based Syntex and supplied its initial funding. 

The Mexican owners of Syntex recruited after Marker s departure George Rosenkranz. Within two years, Rosenkranz succeeded not only in the large-scale production of progesterone, but he also estabhshed the synthesis of the male sex hormone, testosterone, from yam roots. The synthesis starts from 16-dehydro-pregnenolone acetate, which is converted into its oxime Beckmann rearrangement ofthe latter is followed by hydrolysis and yields 5-androsten-3)3-ol-17-one acetate. 

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