College News
26 | F LO R I DA P H Y S I C I A N
Thomas Maren inducted into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame
BY JOE KAYS
1
PHOTO COURTESY OF UF DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Thomas Maren, MD, a founding father of the UF College of
Medicine whose four decades of basic scientific research led
to the development of a top-selling drug for glaucoma, was
inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame in the fall.
Maren arrived on the UF campus in 1955 and continued
working as a graduate research professor until months
before his death at age 81 in 1999.
Maren gained international recognition for his pioneering
investigation of an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase and
its role in fluid production and flow in the eyes, brain, spinal
cord and lymph system. In 1995, his years of collaborative
research with scientists at Merck
and Company resulted in an eye
drop for glaucoma called Trusopt,
which worked without many of
the side effects of earlier oral
medications, like fatigue, anorexia
and numbness in the extremities.
“I began working on developing a
drug that could be given as drops
rather than by the mouth,” Maren
said in an oral history interview.
“That might not sound like a very
big deal, but for 25 years it was
regarded as an impossibility. That
dogma was that a drug of this type
had to be given orally. We showed
that this was incorrect, hence the
success of Trusopt.”
UF licensed the drug to Merck,
and it has brought more than $250
million in royalties to the university for reinvestment in new
research. Maren also generously donated much of his own
royalties back to the university to support research and
education.
Jeffrey R. Martens, PhD ’98, the Thomas H. Maren professor
and chair of the UF College of Medicine department of
pharmacology and therapeutics, wrote in a letter supporting
Maren’s nomination that “the impact of these funds, both in
terms of scholarship development and continued research
opportunities, cannot be underestimated.
“The University of Florida, the state of Florida and the world
have benefited from the invention and success of Trusopt,
and each will continue to benefit from the legacy of Dr.
Maren’s work and the Maren Foundation far into the future,”
Martens wrote.
David Day, former director of UF’s Office of Technology
Licensing, noted in his letter nominating Maren to the
Florida Inventors Hall of Fame that Maren highly valued his
role as a teacher and research mentor.
“His work at UF involved his mentoring of young doctors
and researchers within the institution, who then carried their
expertise to their patients and research labs in Florida and,
indeed, around the nation,” Day said.
Maren was posthumously inducted into the Florida Inventors
Hall of Fame at a ceremony in November.
“The University of
Florida, the state of
Florida and the world
have benefited from
the invention and
success of Trusopt.”
— JEFFREY R. MARTENS, PHD ’98,
THE THOMAS H. MAREN PROFESSOR
AND CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF
PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS,
UF COLLEGE OF MEDICINE