While I can't answer your question about biology/pharma, I will say that depending on how you look at it - Conover's vindication of routine chemistry had some o

While I can't answer your question about biology/pharma, I will say that depending on how you look at it - Conover's vindication of routine chemistry had some of the same elements of sexy as Fleming's discovery of Penicillin. That is, both discoveries were "hidden in plain sight" and owe their existence to the different lab work styles (and thus points of view) of their discoverers.