Dr. Antoni Esteve i Subirana

Born on December 23 in his family’s home on Urgell Street in Manresa, Antoni Esteve i Subirana would become the fifth in a line of apothecaries that started in 1787 when Tomàs Esteve i Gavanyach took the reins at the pharmacy in Manresa’s Hospital de Sant Andreu.

He graduated from the University of Barcelona, receiving the prize for outstanding achievement, going on to complete his doctorate in pharmacy in 1932.

He married Paquita Soler i Casurellas.

Their constancy and capacity for hard work would be essential for the company’s progress and enabling the dream of creating a laboratory for pharmaceutics.

He assumes control of the family pharmacy, located in Manresa’s Plaça de l’Om. His pioneering spirit and strong vocation for research and innovation lead him to set up a small laboratory for clinical analyses in the second floor of the establishment. His research results in the first instance of vitamin D obtained by irradiation in Spain: Esterosol.

Esterosol is the result of combining two vitamins (C and D) that, although incompatible, were blended to create a single product, a lozenge for children and adults.

Dr. Antoni Esteve set up a new laboratory on the top floor of his house in Urgell Street in Manresa to develop chemical and pharmaceutical products. Together with the laboratory above the pharmacy, this enterprise would give rise to Dr. Esteve Laboratories.

After years of research, the company launched Neo-Spirol—the first antisyphilitic to be sold in Spain.

He served as vice-president of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands; he would serve again in this capacity in 1963.

During the Spanish Civil War, the company started to produce sulfonamides, which were discovered by the German chemist Gerhard Domagk. This production became key for provisions of medication at a time when raw materials were very scarce.

According to Oriol Castellet, of the Institute for Catalan Studies, Esteve’s sulfonamide production was “one of the most important successes of the Catalan pharmaceutical industry”.

His research enabled him to synthesize and manufacture another essential product: p-amino-phenyl-sulfonamide, registered under the trademark Amido-Sulfol, one of the first antibiotics of the sulfonamide group sold in Spain.

During his exile in France, Dr. Antoni Esteve i Subirana took charge of research at the French company Usines Chimiques des Laboratoires Français (UCLAF).

This experience was key for the projection of the laboratory in the 1940s.

Back at home, Paquita Soler took charge of keeping the pharmacy and laboratory up and running, with constant support from Francesc Pagès Gili from Barcelona.

A fire broke out at the laboratory on Urgell Street in Manresa, accelerating the definitive transfer of the company to Barcelona.

In 1942, Laboratoris Dr. Esteve moved their headquarters to Mare de Déu de Montserrat Avenue, in the Horta-Guinardó section of Barcelona.

Lured by Dr. Antoni Esteve’s progress, Dr. Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, visited the laboratories when they had already carried out trials with penicillin and distributed informative leaflets to orient physicians in its use. 

He became a member of the Science Section of the Institute for Catalan Studies.

That same year, he synthesized and commercialized Naphtionin, an antihemorrhagic drug that would open the way for exporting products to other countries.

Among other compounds, he went on to synthesize the vasoprotective agent calcium dobesilate: Doxium.

These drugs led to future collaborations with businesses around the world.

Antoni Esteve was appointed to be a full member of the Institute for Catalan Studies; four years later, he became the President of its affiliate Catalan Society of Physical, Chemical, and Mathematical Sciences.

In 1963 he was appointed to be a full member of the Catalan Society of Biology.

He became the third President of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Barcelona (today the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia), of which he had been a member since 1950.

Antoni Esteve i Subirana died on June 13 at the age of 77, leaving an important scientific and cultural legacy from his profound vocation for pharmacology and his firm commitment to his country.