Penicillin

• Joseph Lister discovered penicillin fungus killed bacteria (1872).
• Staphylococcus was the main cause of infection and was deadly during WW1.
• Fleming left germs in a petri dish by accident and when he returned found that the mold had killed the germs.
• Fleming wrote a paper but he hadn't injected it into deeper infections and it was time consuming and expensive.
• Howard Florey and Ernst Chain built on Fleming's work and only received £25 from the UK government.
• The US government funded Florey and Chain's research for 2 years.
• Florey and Chain succeeded on mice but humans would need much bigger doses which were very expensive even for big drug companies so they grew their own.
• Florey and Chain grew enough penicillin to test on a human subject which worked until he died as they ran out of the drug. But this proved that it worked on humans.
• The US government provided more funding and the mass production of penicillin began in 1944 and was then followed by the UK government who needed treatment for the wounded.