William T. Beaver

{{Short description|American medical researcher and educator (1933–2020)}}

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William Thomas Beaver (January 27, 1933 – November 12, 2020) was an American medical researcher and educator who was a professor at Georgetown University. He is best known for his role in drafting the first versions of the rules governing clinical studies in the United States, and for his research into medical usage of painkilling drugs.

Education and career

Beaver was born in Albany, New York, on January 27, 1933.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/william-beaver-covid-death/2020/12/31/dc9b2292-3f1a-11eb-8bc0-ae155bee4aff_story.html|title=William Beaver, groundbreaking painkiller researcher who drafted the initial rules for FDA clinical drug trials, dies of covid complications|last=Hsu|first=Spencer|date=December 31, 2020|accessdate=January 1, 2021|newspaper=Washington Post}} He received an undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1954.{{cite book|author=United States. Congress. Subcommittee on Monopoly|title=Competitive Problems in the Drug Industry: Hearings, Ninetieth Congress, First Session|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKezm59iSp8C&pg=PA9492|year=1973|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=9490–9494|chapter=Affidavit of William Thomas Beaver, MD}} (Beaver's contemporaneous vita) He went on to the Cornell University medical school for his MD, which he completed in 1958.{{cite news|url=https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/?a=d&d=CDS19580613-01.2.41&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|work=Daily Sun|publisher=Cornell University|title=Cornell To Graduate Class of '58|date=June 13, 1958|accessdate=January 1, 2021}}

After a few years as an instructor and assistant professor at Cornell, Beaver moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1968, where he began work at Georgetown University as an associate professor of pharmacology and anesthesiology. He remained at Georgetown through his career, and upon his retirement in 1997, was given the title of professor emeritus.{{cite news|title=Dr. William T. Beaver, 87 (obituary)|work=Loundoun Now|last=Morton|first=Margaret|date=December 8, 2020|accessdate=January 1, 2021|url=https://loudounnow.com/2020/12/08/dr-william-t-beaver-87/}}{{cite web|url=https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RWVlAAO/william-beaver|title=William Beaver (faculty profile)|publisher=Georgetown University|accessdate=January 1, 2021}}

Work

Beaver is known for his research during the 1970s on the clinical use of painkillers, which helped to establish evidence-based guidelines for the use of painkillers in treatment of post-surgical and chronic pain.

While a clinical pharmacologist at Georgetown University, Beaver created the first version of the rules governing "adequate and controlled" clinical studies.{{cite news|url=https://www.fda.gov/media/110437/download|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509190506/https://www.fda.gov/media/110437/download|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 9, 2020|title=FDA and Clinical Drug Trials: A Short History|last=Junod|first=Suzanne White|date=2008|accessdate=January 1, 2021|publisher=U.S. Food and Drug Administration}}

Death

Beaver died from complications of COVID-19 at a care facility in Leesburg, Virginia, on November 12, 2020. He was 87.

References