Sir John Vane in interview with Max Blythe: Part 2

Part two Sir John begins by speaking in more detail about the research which by 1971 had established that aspirin-like drugs blocked the release of prostaglandins, and the development of the concept of local and circulating hormones. The discussion then turns to his time as research and development director of the Wellcome Foundation and he speaks of the challenges and the difficulties of directing a work force of three thousand. He mentions the team of pharmacologists he built up at the Wellcome Foundation and its concentration on prostaglandin research, and there follows a discussion of work on thromboxane synthetase, and the discovery of prostacyclin, a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation. The final stages of the interview cover the later stages of Sir John's career which were destined to take place in a new Institute, the William Harvey Institute, he developed to further his research on atherosclerosis. There is time however only to discuss continuing interest in prostacycli