Hitchings, George H.

Hitchings, George H. (Herbert) (1905–  ) biochemist, pharmacologist; born in Hoquiam, Wash. He taught at Harvard (1928–39) and Western Reserve (1939–42), then joined the Burroughs Wellcome Company, N.C. (1942–75). In 1945 Hitchings began a professional, and often competitive, relationship with Gertrude Elion; the two scientists formed a team that discovered drugs for treatment of leukemia, gout, infective diseases, autoimmune disorders, and transplant rejection. Although Nobel Prizes are rarely awarded to employees of pharmaceutical companies, Hitchings and Elion were awarded one-half the 1988 Nobel Prize in physiology for their many contributions to drug therapy.