From the article:
"Louis C. Lasagna, MD, best known for having pioneered well controlled
research on the placebo effect, died of lymphoma on August 6 at the
Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass. Dr. Lasagna was dean
emeritus of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at
Tufts University.
""The [placebo] phenomenon was known but [Lasagna's research] was a
turning point for how drugs should be evaluated. He was a leading
figure in establishing the efficacy of drugs," said David Stollar,
acting dean of the Sackler School. "One could be seriously misled in
evaluating the effectiveness of a drug without recognizing that some
of the effectiveness was not reflecting the action of the drug."
"Richard I. Shader, professor of pharmacology and experimental
therapeutics at the Sackler School, explained that before Lasagna's
studies, "people were just capitalizing on the placebo effect without
trying to quantify it. Lou worked with a man named Beecher at Mass
General Hospital, and they approached the placebo effect
scientifically, trying to keep the psychological and the actual
effects straight and to figure out why some groups of people were more
responsive to placebo than others."