By Scott Graber
It is Sunday, and I’m in Port Royal. This afternoon I’m sitting with Leigh Stone in my small grey-painted study, and we’re talking about Oxytetracycline — a broad spectrum antibiotic discovered by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in 1949.
Oxytetracycline (also known as Terramycin) is effective against infections of the respiratory and urinary tracts, Lyme disease, cholera, typhus and tularemia. Leigh Stone tells me that it was Oxytetracycline that was Pfizer’s first and best-selling drug after a slow start when others — like Eli Lilly and Merck — acquired their patents on existing drugs like Streptomycin and Ampicillin.
Stone came of age in suburban New York City, the son of a surgeon. He went to Lehigh University intending to study Economics but found fraternities more interesting. That led to a two-year sabbatical in the United States Army, including one year at Tan Son Nhat Airbase outside Saigon.
“The tour in Vietnam allowed me to grow up a little bit; and gave me a renewed focus on Economics when I got back to Lehigh,” he says.
In due course, that refocus got Stone an MBA from Lehigh; then his CPA; and eventually work as an internal auditor at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals on East 42nd Street in New York City.
“When I got to Pfizer I wanted meaningful managerial work and, secondly, I wanted to run something,” he says.
“As an auditor I was able to examine almost every aspect of the company and found that International sales made up 55% of Pfizer’s business; but accounted for 75% of the net income.”
“I also discovered that the essential ingredients for many of our drugs came from places like Ireland; that our distribution centers were in places like Brussels; and that pill manufacturing usually happened in the country where the drugs would be sold.”
“This system of production and distribution resulted in a corporate tax rate of about 21% rather than the 40% we would be paying in the United States.”
“It was also apparent that in each of the countries where Pfizer operated, the Country Manager had total control of the operations.”
This last realization would put Pfizer International into Stone’s sights, and eventually, he was named the Country Manager for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is an island that is just off the southern coast of India consisting of 22 million people and one overarching problem — two ethnic populations that do not like each other.
“The British needed someone to grow their tea,” said Stone. “And brought hundreds of thousands of Tamils over from India.
The Tamils over-performed, were entrepreneurial and quickly learned the English language.”
“The British favored English-speakers, so the Tamils outcompeted their Sinhalese counterparts in the civil service sector.” (Wikipedia).
“Pfizer employed both Sinhalese and Tamil workers, and I knew that getting these two cultures together was essential if we were to produce our pharmaceuticals inside the country,” says Stone.
“Right after we arrived I sat down with one of the Ministers — a man close to the President — who told me the Tamils were dirty, dishonest and could not be trusted. I was stunned by his speech.”
“We lived in a compound — near where the President lived — and began to experience electrical blackouts, demonstrations, and it was clear that the situation was getting worse.”
The shooting started in 1983, just after Stone and his family had left. Between 1987 and 1990 Indian peacekeeping forces tried to broker a ceasefire but the “Tamil Tigers” then assassinated Sinhalese President Premadasa in a bomb attack in 1993.
Between 1995 and 2001, the war raged throughout the north and east. The Tamils bombed Sri Lanka’s holiest Buddhist site and a suicide attack destroyed the airport and half of the Sir Lankan airline fleet.
In 2009, the Sinhalese government announced the Tamil Tigers were defeated after the army forces over-ran the last patch of rebel territory. Some 70,000 to 80,000 people are estimated to have been killed in this war.
This was not the only time when British colonial decisions favored one tribe leading to unrest and civil war — this also happed in Nigeria where the Hausa, Igbo and the Yoruba peoples fight to this day.
And then we have Trinidad, where the British brought in 150,000 workers from India to harvest sugar cane. This did not cause a civil war but led to huge social and demographic problems that also persist.
After Sri Lanka, Stone took the Country Manager job in Portugal; after which he returned to New York eventually becoming Vice President of Pfizer International for Finance and Vice President for Strategic Planning.
But Leigh Stone’s story was not over. Not yet.
When he and his wife got to Beaufort there was still a longing “to fix people” and Stone admits, “I’m somewhat of an adrenalin junkie.”
He decided the best place for his condition was Beaufort Memorial’s Emergency Room where he spent 10 years as an Emergency Room Nurse. These days he satisfies the urge to fix people at the Good Neighbor Free Clinic on Ribaut Road.
Somewhere, someplace, Leigh Stone’s father must be smiling.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.