Triazene dacarbazine, developed by Dr. Fulmer Shealy and others in the early 1960s, became Southern Research’s first drug to achieve approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in May 1975. It was originally marketed by Bayer as DTIC-Dome.

Dacarbazine, a chemotherapy drug classified as an alkylating agent, is on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines.

It is used to treat metastatic malignant melanoma, Hodgkin’s disease, soft tissue sarcomas, neuroblastoma, fibrosarcomas, rhabdomyosarcoma, islet cell carcinoma, and medullary carcinoma of the thyroid.

The non-profit research organization’s original charter was focused on advancing Southern industry, but May wanted his gift to focus on improving the welfare of the region’s residents. This became the seed money that launched Southern Research’s cancer program, headed by Dr. Howard Skipper.

Skipper built a world-class research team at Southern Research that made significant advances in the field of cancer research. Their work in the 1950s and 1960s defined the fundamentals of effective cancer chemotherapy at a time when there was widespread skepticism about the practice. Skipper also developed the principles of combination chemotherapy to counter resistance and reduce toxicity.

The Mobile businessman later established the Ben May Charitable Trust and funded the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago.

Photo shows Chairman Tom Martin presenting Dr. Howard Skipper with a key to a lab.