[p2p-research] Making Penicillin

[Ryan]

  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader: Making Penicillin via The
Decision Tree by Brian Mossop on 7/16/10

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin through an equal mix
of scientific rigor and serendipity. Still, doctors spent the better
part of the 1930’s one step behind infections that had no regard for
human life. Penicillin was simply too expensive and difficult to
produce in large quantities, and the drug was tucked away on a
laboratory shelf until the outbreak of WWII in 1939.

The US government used the need to treat battlefield infections to
seize control of penicillin production, along with the intellectual
property and patents behind the drug. But Uncle Sam’s questionable
tactics paid off: from 1939 to 1944, penicillin went from an expensive
laboratory experiment to a battlefield staple in every soldier’s medic
kit.

Having lost their patents and potential financial gain to the
government, drug companies began the quest to develop other types of
drugs that were similar to penicillin, thereby launching a billion
dollar antibiotic development industry.

NPR had a segment on ‘All Things Considered’ this week discussing the
full story of bringing penicillin to market, which appears in a new
book, ‘A Fierce Radiance’, by Lauren Belfer.

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