LOWER MERION, Pa. (AP) – Celso-Ramon Garcia, a University of Pennsylvania researcher whose work contributed to the development of an effective birth control pill, died Feb. 1 in Boston, where he was visiting a relative. He was 82.

The cause of death was cardiovascular disease, said his daughter, Sarita G. Cole of Virginia Beach, Va.

In the 1950s, Garcia led an early clinical trial in Puerto Rico, testing and refining an oral contraceptive for women that had been developed by Drs. Gregory G. Pincus and John Rock.

“The pill,” which blocks the release of a hormone used to stimulate eggs during ovulation, was approved for use in the United States in 1960. Although the dosage has been decreased, the pill used today works the same way.

“Dr. Garcia established the clinical effectiveness of a very important theory,” said Dr. Luigi Mastroianni Jr., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Penn.

Garcia, who was born in New York City, received an undergraduate degree from Queens College and a medical degree from Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York in 1945.

He was president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in 1982-83 and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

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