Sir alexander fleming the discoverer of penicillin
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The Discovery of Penicillin—New Insights After More Than 75 Years of Clinical Use
Abstract
After just over 75 years of penicillin’s clinical use, the world can see that its impact was immediate and profound. In 1928, a chance event in Alexander Fleming’s London laboratory changed the course of medicine. However, the purification and first clinical use of penicillin would take more than a decade. Unprecedented United States/Great Britain cooperation to produce penicillin was incredibly successful by 1943. This success overshadowed efforts to produce penicillin during World War II in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands. Information about these efforts, available only in the last 10–15 years, provides new insights into the story of the first antibiotic. Researchers in the Netherlands produced penicillin using their own production methods and marketed it in 1946, which eventually increased the penicillin supply and decreased the price. The unusual serendipity involved in the disco
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How was penicillin developed?
Before antibiotics, a relatively minor infection could prove incurable or even deadly. Everything from paper cuts to childbirth had the potential to kill through bacterial infection.
The accidental discovery of a mouldy petri-dish in 1928 kickstarted a 20-year long journey to develop the world’s first mass produced drug that could clear a bacterial infection; penicillin. But why did it take so long?
The Accidental Discovery: Fleming’s Lab, St. Mary's Hospital, London. 1928 to 1929
In 1928 Dr Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday to find mould growing on a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. He noticed the mould seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. He soon identified that the mould produced a self-defence chemical that could kill bacteria. He named the substance penicillin.
Fleming published his findings and presented his discovery to the Medical Research Club. To his surprise, his pee
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Discovery and Development of Penicillin
Penicillin, WWII and Commercial Production
The increasingly obvious value of penicillin in the war effort led the War Production Board (WPB) in 1943 to take responsibility for increased production of the drug. The WPB investigated more than 175 companies before selecting 21 to participate in a penicillin schema under the direction of Albert Elder; in addition to Lederle, Merck, Pfizer and Squibb, Abbott Laboratories (which had also been among the major producers of clinical supplies of penicillin to mid-1943) was one of the first companies to begin large-scale production. These firms received top priority on construction materials and other supplies necessary to meet the production goals. The WPB controlled the disposition of all of the penicillin produced.
One of the major goals was to have an adequate supply of the drug on hand for the proposed D-Day invasion of Europe. Feelings of wartime patriotism greatly stimulated work on penicillin