Roger Edward Collingwood Altounyan (1922–1987) was a Syrian-born Anglo-Armenian physician and pharmacologist who pioneered the use of sodium cromoglycate as a remedy for asthma.
Prior to the RPR takeover, the R&D element of Fisons was sold to Astra, making it now part of AstraZeneca.
[3] His flying experience is said to be the inspiration for the "spinhaler", a propeller-driven device to deliver sodium cromoglycate deep into the lungs.
[4] During his childhood, the Altounyans visited their British grandparents (his grandfather was W. G. Collingwood) in the Lake District where they met the writer Arthur Ransome.
Ransome later stayed with the family in Aleppo, bringing them a small dinghy to sail, and writing most of Peter Duck there.