Penicillin

• During WW1 Alexander Fleming found that wounds infected with bacteria weren’t healed by chemical antiseptics
• In 1928 fleming was trying to kill staphylococcus germs, but when he went on holiday he left several plates of the bacteria out in a bench. A spore from penicillin mould floated up the stairs and landed on the plate, killing the germs
• Fleming realised the germ killing capability of penicillin, but thought it was a natural antiseptic
• Fleming didn’t test penicillin any further and lost interest
• In the 1930s students Howard Florey and Ernst chain applied to the government for money to research penicillin
• The government gave Florey and chain £25, and they managed to produce enough to test in 8 mice
• They turned their university apartment into a penicillin factory to produce enough to test on a human
• They tested it on Albert Alexander, who had been scratched by a rose bush. The infection started to clear up, but they ran out of drug and he died.
• There was a real need to treat the number of infected soldiers during WW2, so Florey and chain met with the US government and convinced them to pay chemical comparison make gallons of it
• By 1944 there was enough to treat all the allies wounded on D Day
• 250,000 soldiers were being treated by 1945
• 15% of British and American soldiers would have died without penicillin
• The need to produce masses of penicillin was a factor in the huge growth of the pharmaceutical industr.
• Penicillin was known as a ‘wonder drug’
• Penicillin was the first antibiotic
• After WW2 it was available for doctors to use and has saved millions of people
• It led to other antibiotic being produced:

  • streptomycin in 1944
  • tetracycline in 1953
  • mytomycin in 1956
• Antibiotics are now free with the NHS