The plans for a statue in Ramelton to honour Nobel Laurete for Medicine, Professor Bill Campbell (3171) who turned 90 on the 28th of June, previously mentioned in the 2019 edition of the Old Campbellian magazine are well uderway, despite Covid19. If you wish to contribute towards the costs of erecting this commemoration to a man who has changed the lives of millions of people you can do so via the Shop Section.

(You can make multiple donations/purchases if you wish to donate more than £25.00 - https://www.oldcampbellians.co.uk/product/33 )

From 1957 to 1990 Professor Campbell worked at Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research. During this time he worked mostly in the field of parasitic diseases, including on the development of the drug ivermectin for the control of parasitic infections in veterinary medicine. He had the vision to realise that this drug could be useful in the control of parasitic disease in humans, and in 1981, Merck carried out successful trials in Senegal and France on river blindness. Taken orally, the drug, formulated as Mectizan, paralyses and sterilises the parasitic worm that causes the illness. The research of Professor Campbell and his co-workers was ground-breaking and created a new class of drugs for the treatment of parasites.
 
With the unwavering support of Professor Campbell and his colleagues, Merck and the World Health Organization created an unprecedented drug donation program, providing Mectizan to developing countries and in doing so eradicated river blindness in these regions.
 
As of 2001 an estimated 25 million people were being treated each year in 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. As of 2013, the Carter Center independently verified that the disease had been eradicated in Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico.
 
 
From 1990 to 2010, when he retired, Professor Campbell was a research fellow at Drew University in Madison, N.J., and in 2002, he was elected as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
 
In 2015, he and his co-discoverer; Professor Satoshi Ōmura shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on therapies against infections caused by roundworm parasites and in doing so became the 11th person from our shores to be awarded the distinguished honour.