Developing Penicillin Into a Usable Drug Flashcards

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Why did Fleming's discovery of penicillin not lead straight away to a new drug?

Because he could not keep penicillin pure, could not make it in large amounts, and did not test it on people.

Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.

They did their penicillin research at Oxford University.

They tested it on mice with deadly infections. The mice given penicillin lived, and the mice without it died.

A policeman called Albert Alexander, who had blood poisoning. He got better at first but died when the team ran out of penicillin.

Because they could only grow a small amount of penicillin mould and had to use makeshift equipment, so they never had enough drug.

They collected the patients’ urine and took the penicillin out of it so they could use it again.

The war created a huge need to treat infected wounds, so governments gave money and support to speed up penicillin research.

They gave research money and worked with drug companies so more penicillin could be made.

It was the first widely used antibiotic, so doctors could cure many bacterial infections that once killed people.

Penicillin became an antibiotic, a drug that kills disease-causing bacteria inside the body.