The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p47
12 July 2003

This page
Reprint
Photocopy

PDF* 85K

  Modernisation
  English testing
  Drug tariff
  Zinamide
  Omeprazole
  Cardiac disease
  Penicillin
  CPD
  Boots pharmacists
  Onlooker

Letters to the Editor

Penicillin

More snippets of information

From Dr R. Baker, FRPharmS

Further to recent correspondence on the discovery of penicillin, in a public lecture 50 years ago, I heard Sir Alexander Fleming say that, although he realised that the clear areas on his bacterial plates were due to some substance which was toxic to the micro-organisms he was using, he "did not know enough chemistry to try to find out what it was".

On the question of deep fermentation, Sir Harry Jephcott, chairman 1945–61 and managing director 1935–56 of Glaxo Laboratories Ltd, told me that, in the 1940s and 1950s Glaxo had a leaning towards trying a process first and theorising about it afterwards. While others were doing "elegant" chemical engineering studies on the possibility, Glaxo was making the process work in milk churns.

Roger Baker
Hertford

Send your letter to The Editor

Previous Topic (Cardiac disease)
Next Topic (CPD)