Salvador Moncada was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on the 3rd December, 1944. After graduating in Medicine and Surgery from the University of El Salvador (1962-70), he expanded his studies, gaining doctorates in Pharmacology (1973) and Science (1983) from the University of London.
He worked as a teacher at the Universities of El Salvador and Honduras, and did several research projects at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in England, where he was in charge of the prostaglandin research team (1975-1985), and subsequently director of the therapeutic research division (1984-86). Since 1986, he has been the research director of the said laboratories. He has also worked as a visiting lecturer in Pharmacology at King´s College, London. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has cooperated, in the field of Medical Education, with the Pan-American Health Organisation, the WHO for Spanish American countries.
He is a doctor "honoris causa" of the Complutense University of Madrid and the universities of Cantabria and Honduras. He has contributed to or directed more than 370 scientific scientific publications and has received various prizes for his research work. His main researches have concentrated on the pharmacological effects of vaso-active substances, especially the products of the metabolism of arachidonic acid, as well as the synthesis, actions and breakdown of the biological mediator, nitric oxide. He has also carried out important work on subjects of inflammation, platlets, the interaction between platlets and the vascular wall, and thrombosis and arteriosclerosis.