In 1969 he moved to the United States to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in chemistry, graduating in May 1972.
Supervised by Paul Schimmel, his doctoral research was an investigation of the structure function relationships of transfer RNAs and their complexes.
His choice was influenced by the severe disabilities suffered by his first daughter, Maureen, who was born with lissencephaly and needed specialised care.
[1] From the start Centocor decided to fill its product pipeline through partnerships with research institutions and marketing alliances.
Learning from its mistakes with Centoxin, in December 1994 Centocor gained marketing approval for ReoPro, a monoclonal antibody drug for cardiovascular disease.
ReoPro was to be followed in August 1998 by the approval of Centocor's Remicade, a drug to treat auto-immune disorders like Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
[9] Later the company turned direction to looking at the development of a treatment for incision wounds in women following breast cancer reconstruction surgery.
[10] Despite promising clinical results and raising more than $55 million in venture capital funding, the company was unable to continue.