Alexander fleming discovered penicillin in what year

Penicillin, WWII and Commercial Production

The increasingly obvious value of penicillin in the war effort led the War Production Board (WPB) in to take responsibility for increased production of the drug. The WPB investigated more than companies before selecting 21 to participate in a penicillin program 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) 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 in the United Kingdom and the United States. For example, Albert Elder wrote to manufacturers in "You are urged to impress upon every worker in your plant that penicillin produced today will be saving the life of someone in a few days or curing the disease of someone now incapacitated. Put up slogans in your plant! Place notices in pay envelopes! Create an enthusiasm for the job down to the lowest worker in your plant."

As publicity concerning this new "miracle drug" began to reach the public, the demand for penicillin increased. But supplies at first were limited, and priority was given to military use.

Dr. Chester Keefer of Boston, Chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Chemotherapy, had the unenviable task of rationing supplies of the drug for civilian use. Keefer had to restrict the use of the drug to cases where other methods of treatment had failed. Part of his job was also to collect detailed clinical information about the use of the drug so that a ful

“I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.”

Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician-scientist who was recognised for discovering penicillin. The simple discovery and use of the antibiotic agent has saved millions of lives, and earned Fleming – together with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who devised methods for the large-scale isolation and production of penicillin – the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine.

BEGINNINGS

On August 6, , Alexander Fleming was born to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton in Lochfield Farm, Scotland. Initially schooled in Scotland, Fleming eventually moved to London with three brothers and a sister, and completed his youth education at the Regent Street Polytechnic. He did not enter medical school immediately after; instead, he worked in a shipping office for four years. When his uncle John died, he willed equal shares of his estate to his siblings, nieces and nephews, and Fleming was able to use his share to pursue a medical education. In , he graduated with distinction from St Mary’s Medical School at London University.

FORTUNATE CHOICES

Fleming did not intend to begin a career in research. While serving as a private in the London Scottish Regiment of the Territorial Army, he became a recognised marksman. Wishing to keep Fleming in St Mary’s to join its rifle club, the club’s captain convinced him to pursue a career in research rather than in surgery, as the latter choice would require him to leave the school. The captain introduced him to Sir Almroth Wright, a keen club member and a pioneer in immunology and vaccine research, who agreed to take Fleming under his wing. It was with this research group that Fleming stayed throughout his entire career.

When World War I broke out, Fleming served in the Army Medical Corps as a captain. During this time, he observed the death of many of his fellow soldiers, not always from wounds inflicted in battle, but from the ensuing infection that co

Abstract

After just over 75 years of penicillin’s clinical use, the world can see that its impact was immediate and profound. In , 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 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 , which eventually increased the penicillin supply and decreased the price. The unusual serendipity involved in the discovery of penicillin demonstrates the difficulties in finding new antibiotics and should remind health professionals to expertly manage these extraordinary medicines.

Keywords: penicillin, discovery, antimicrobial drugs, antibiotics, history of medicine

According to British hematologist and biographer Gwyn Macfarlane, the discovery of penicillin was “a series of chance events of almost unbelievable improbability” (1). After just over 75 years of clinical use, it is clear that penicillin’s initial impact was immediate and profound. Its detection completely changed the process of drug discovery, its large-scale production transformed the pharmaceutical industry, and its clinical use changed forever the therapy for infectious diseases. The success of penicillin production in Great Britain and the United States overshadowed the serendipity of its production and the efforts of other nations to produce it. Information on penicillin production in Europe during World War II, available only in the las

Scottish physician and microbiologist (–)

For other people named Alexander Fleming, see Alexander Fleming (disambiguation).

Sir Alexander FlemingFRS FRSE FRCS (6 August – 11 March ) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens has been described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease". For this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.

He also discovered the enzymelysozyme from his nasal discharge in , and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus.

Fleming was knighted for his scientific achievements in In , he was named in Time magazine's list of the Most Important People of the 20th century. In , he was chosen in the BBC's television poll for determining the Greatest Britons, and in , he was also voted third "greatest Scot" in an opinion poll conducted by STV, behind only Robert Burns and William Wallace.

Early life and education

Born on 6 August at Lochfield farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, Scotland, Alexander Fleming was the third of four children of farmer Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from his first marriage. He was 59 at the time of his second marriage to Grace, and died when Alexander was seven.

Fleming went to Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, and earned a two-year scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London, where he attended the Royal Polytechnic Institution. After working in a shipping office for four years, the twenty-year-old A