‘I Was Only the Impresario – the Managing Director’: J.J.R. Macleod and the Pragmatics of the Discovery and Development of Insulin

Abstract

Abstract. On 7 November 1923, when J.J.R. Macleod announced that he would split his half of the Nobel Prize with J.B. Collip, following F.G. Banting splitting his half of the prize with C.H. Best, a reporter asked Macleod to assess his share in the discovery of insulin. “Oh, I was only the impresario – the managing director,” he replied. Whether Macleod deserved the recognition with Banting of the Nobel Committee for the discovery of insulin, it is certainly clear that the discovery, and especially its efficient development into a remarkably effective diabetes treatment, would not have happened without Macleod's knowledge and laboratory research experience. Nor would it have happened without his leadership and, especially, without his acumen as the managing director, or impresario, of the insulin enterprise.