Penicillin Flashcards
(13 cards)
When did Fleming find it?
1928
By chance he saw a white mould was growing in a mould culture dish
which was preventing the growth of other mould and also killed other mould
When did Fleming publish this
1929 in a medical journal
Absolute flop
Extent of Fleming’s work
Not much attention given
Hard to mass-produce
But still a fundamental start
When did Florey + chain recognize penicillin’s potential
1938, read Fleming’s article
When did f+c ask for funding and from who
1938
They asked uk govt. but received only 25 gbp
As uk too busy making weapons in preparation of war
They then asked us govt. who realised the potential and gave them enough funding for 5 years research
What did they test penicillin on
Mice
It worked
But they needed 3000x more penicillin to treat just one person
When did they have enough penicillin to test on a person and who was this
1941
Albert Alexander
Albert Alexander and the results
Had septicaemia
Chemical drugs didn’t work
So f+c injected him with penicillin
It worked
But not enough penicillin to keep him alive
Proved that penicillin did work against bacterial infection without harming the patient
What did f+c do following the Ali A test
Florey went to usa
What did usa do after florey’s visit following the Ali a test
They gave interest free loans to American pharmaceutical companies
So they could buy the expensive equipment needed to mass produce penicillin
D-day and penicillin
British firms also began to mass-produce penicillin
Buy d-day 1944, there were 2.3million doses of penicillin
which was responsible for 15% of the allied survivors (surviving)
When did Florey + Fleming + chain get Nobel prize for medicine
1945
How many institutions in usa did Florey convince to become involved in the penicillin project
35 institutions
