Alma Levant Hayden: Chemist

It is an incredible truth that many of the most brilliant scientists were foremost good and noble people. To have a staunch desire to serve the people, and for that to motivate all one’s actions, takes a great deal of strength.

Alma Levant Hayden was one such scientist. Putting aside great personal difficulty to work for the common good, Hayden made some of the most influential chemical discoveries of the 1960’s.

In 1956, Alma Levant Hayden joined the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s division of pharmaceutical chemistry. She study and published work on spectroscopy and spectrophotometry in the later 50s and 60s, and, in 1963 was named Director of Spectrophotometry Branch of the FDA. Concurrently, the US Congress had passed the 1962 Drug Amendments, which revised federal regulations and requiring drug manufacturers to abide by more stringent standards for drugs to be FDA-approved.

First released in the US in 1950, Krebiozen was an injection “cancer cure” costing about $87 USD today per treatment. As it had the support of a well-known cancer researcher, Krebiozen was a popular and oft-purchased drug. Many patients believed wholeheartedly in Krebiozen’s effectiveness, though it did not demonstrate any notable anti-cancerous properties.

In 1961, the FDA launched an investigation of Krebiozen under the leadership of Hayden and her team of spectrophotometry experts. Hayden assigned a summer intern, Ruth Kessler, to comb through a library of 20,000 chemicals to find a match for the mysterious substance forming Krebiozen. Soon, Kessler had identified a match. Hayden and her team had proved that Krebiozen was nothing more than creatine – a protein derived from animals.

Hayden’s work saved a country from paying week after week for a quack “cure”; it is thanks to chemists, physicists, and environmental scientists, to name a few, that millions of lives were saved from false cures, and families saved their resources instead of spending on false drugs.

It is sad that after all this work, Hayden herself succumbed to cancer. However, her legacy lives on, reminding the FDA day in and day out that following the scientific method can uncover even the most mysterious questions.