AWARDEE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

SANG GUOWEI

Abstract

Prof. Sang Guo Wei, a clinical pharmacologist, was born in Shanghai in November 1941. He graduated from First Medical College of Shanghai in 1962, and obtained his postgraduate degree at Department of Pharmacology, First Medical College of Shanghai in 1966. During 1979～1981, he received training at Department of Physiology, Cambridge University, and Department of Steroid Biochemistry, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, specialized in clinical pharmacology. He served as temporary adviser and Steering Committee member for Special Programme of Research in Human Reproduction, World Health Organization (1983-1989). From 1989 to 1990, he was appointed as visiting professor in Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Department of Medicine, New York Hospital, Cornell University Medical College. He was elected to be the Councilors, Section of Clinical Pharmacology, International Union of Pharmacology (1992-2000), and currently is director of Institute of Family Planning Research and director of WHO CCR in Human Reproduction. He is director of National Key Laboratory for Safety Evaluation of New Investigational Drug, and vice president of Public Health Bureau of Zhejiang Province. Since 1985 he has been the National Committee member of Drug Evaluation ministry of Public Health, China. He is also the National Committee member for Import Drugs Evaluation.
Prof. Sang Guo Wei has a series of achievements in pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies on long-acting steroid contraceptives. In 1980, he reported in detail on pharmacokinetic profile of norethisterone enanthate (NET-EN) in human being. After completing a one year longitudinal study in 1994, he proved for the first time that the monthly injectable contraceptive did not cause constant increase of serum prolactin levels or hyperprolactinemia, and that there was no accumulation of northisterone after 12 months of treatment with NET-EN 50mg and estradiol valerate 5mg. These findings provided important safety data for long-term administration of monthly contraceptives.
In recent 5 years, he devoted on the pharmacological study and clinical investigation on an antiprogestogen, mifepristone. He completed bioequivalence study, phase Ⅱ and phase Ⅲ clinical trials on medical termination of early pregnancy with comparison of different dose of mifepristone plus prostaglandin. As a principal investigator, he conducted a largest introductory study on medical abortion using mifepristone in 17523 Chinese women during 1992～1995. 75.2% of subjects were satisfactory in self-assessment and 81.8% of subjects would choose medical abortion in case of need to terminate early pregnancy. He worked with clinical expertise and developed a standard operation procedure of medical induced abortion which has been used widely throughout China and showed extremely valuable to ensure the method is effectively and safely applied.
Hypokalemia attributed to gossypol treatment has inhibited further development of gossypol as a male oral contraceptive. Prof. San found that gossypol had a potential competitive inhibitory effect on enzyme activity of 11-β-OHSD in vitro using microsome preparations from guinea pig kidney in which 11-β-OHSD could be inhibited by 14 daily subcutaneous administration of gossypol acetic acid. He proposed a hypothesis in 1990 that gossypol inhibits 11-β-OHSD and causes glucocorticoid excess in the kidney, leading to potassium loss and subsequent hypokalemia. He suggested that pharmacogenetic differences in the enzyme system may also account for hypokalemia developed in some people after gossypol intake whereas did not cause hypokalemia in most population.