 In 1951, Djerassi, Miramontes and Rosencranz synthesized norethisterone at Syntex, the first orally active progesterone analog and a vital ingredient of the first oral contraceptive pills.By this time, Syntex and its Mexican competitors (including Percy Lavon Julian, the first African-American chemist inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences) were supplying more than half the human sex hormones sold in the United States, and the price of progesterone had dropped to $2/gram.