Development of Propranolol, the first beta-blocker effectively used in the treatment of coronary heart disease and hypertension.  R. G. Shanks, L. H. Smith and A. C. Dornhorst.

In 1988 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment."