Relenza inventor Mark von Itzstein wins Adrien Albert Award

Prof Mark von Itzstein has won the RACI's Adrien Albert Award for his contribution to medicinal chemistry through the design and development of anti-influenza virus drug Relenza.

The Adrien Albert Award is awarded by the Division of Biomolecular Chemistry of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists.

"This award is the premier award of that particular division, and of course it's very humbling and it's a great honour to receive it," said von Itzstein.

Relenza was designed and synthesised by von Itzstein and his team at Monash University's Victorian College of Pharmacy. Von Itzstein is currently executive director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University and a non-executive director of EQiTX (ASX:EQX) and chairman of ZingoTX.

Established in 1983, the Adrien Albert Award is given for sustained, outstanding Australian and New Zealand research in medicinal or agricultural chemistry that has a biomolecular chemistry focus.

The award was presented to von Itzstein at Connect 2005, the RACI's conference in Sydney. "I had to give the Adrien Albert Lecture which is associated with the award," von Itzstein said. "I spoke on parainfluenza, croup in children. What we're doing there is looking at discovering new antivirals, on this occasion, anti-parainfluenza drugs that may relieve the symptoms and cure croup."

Von Itzstein was also awarded the Australia Prize in 1996, a Centenary Medal, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.