Best Of: Finding Dora Richardson, The Forgotten Developer of Tamoxifen, a Lifesaving Breast Cancer Therapy - Episode One

In the early 1960s, Dr. Dora Richardson synthesized a chemical compound that became one of the most important drugs to treat breast cancer: tamoxifen. Although her name is on the original patent, her contributions have been lost to history.

In the first episode of this two-part podcast, Katie Couric introduces us to Dora’s story, and we show how Lost Women of Science producer Marcy Thompson tracked down Dora’s firsthand account of the history of the drug’s development. This document, lost for decades, tells the story of how the compound was made and how Imperial Chemical Industries, where Richardson worked, almost terminated the project because the company was hoping to produce a contraceptive, not a cancer therapy.

This Best Of episode first aired in October 2024 to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness month. It is now also available in a Spanish adaptation, narrated by Laura Gómez.