Jānis Polis Explained

Jānis Polis
Birth Date:	25 June 1938
Birth Place:	Eleja parish, Latvia
Death Place:	Riga, Latvia
Nationality:	Latvian
Fields:	Chemistry
Workplaces:	Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis
Alma Mater:	Riga Polytechnical Institute
Known For:	Development of one of the first methods of synthesis of rimantadine

Jānis Polis (25 June 1938 – 12 April 2011) was a Soviet and Latvian pharmacologist and the developer of one of the first methods of synthesis of rimantadine, which was discovered in 1963 by William W. Prichard of Du Pont & Co.^[1] He was born in Eleja parish, Latvia. On 6 February 2009, Polis was awarded the WIPO Award for Outstanding Inventors.^[2] Polis died in Riga, Latvia on 12 April 2011 at the age of 72.

Further reading

• Web site: Talented but difficult . . Ieva Puķe . 16–22 September 2010 . 13 April 2011.
• Web site: Janis Polis . . 13 April 2011.

Notes and References

1. News: Miris Remantadīna izgudrotājs Jānis Polis . . . Latvian . 12 April 2011 . 13 April 2011.
   - US patent 3352912 to W. W. Prichard
   - United States Patent № 4551552: Process for preparing rimantadine: Rimantadine and related compounds useful as antivirals were first described by Prichard in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,352,912 and 3,592,934. Both patents describe the preparation of rimantadine from the corresponding ketone oxime by reduction with lithium aluminum hydride.
2. Web site: WIPO Awards Presented to a Latvian Inventor and an Innovative Enterprise . Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia . 9 February 2009 . 13 April 2011.