1928- DISCOVERY of PENICILLIN by Sir Alexander fleming:
Initially Fleming was convinced that Penicillin would not last long enough inside a human body to kill bacteria and stopped studying Penicillin in 1931. He later resumed clinical trials in 1934. It was not until in the early 40's that Penicillin was used to treat a patient. During world war II Penicillin made a major difference in reducing the number of deaths and amputaions caused by infected wounds in the Allied forces.
1940 discovery of Methotrexate:
Methotrexate originated in the 1940s when Dr. Farber at children hospital Boston was testing the effects of foilc acid on acute leukemic children (Severe blood cancer). Inspired he asked Dr. Subba Row to synthesize Anti-folate (methotrexate). Dr.Farber then administred this anti-folate to these children; the remarkable clinical improvement in these shildren heralded the era of cancer chemotherapy in modern medicine. Methotrexate was aproved by FDA in 1953 as an oncology drug.
Ulcer treatment breaks new ground in drug development
Cimetidine, better known as Tagamet®, opened a new chapter in drug development. Introduced in 1976 as a treatment for stomach ulcers — then a potentially life-threatening condition — cimetidine was the product of a logical and methodical search.
Researchers at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals identified the molecule that triggers the release of gastric acid when it binds to a receptor in the lining of the stomach. They reasoned that ulcers could be treated with a molecule that combined with the same receptor, but blocked rather than stimulated the release of gastric acid — much as a defensive player in a football game intercepts a pass.
After a decade-long search, the researchers achieved their goal with cimetidine. It represented a new class of drugs and a new approach to developing them.
Selman Waksman and Antibiotics
Selman Waksman and his students at Rutgers University developed a series of antibiotics from actinomycetes, a group of soil microbes similar to bacteria. The Waksman team isolated about twenty antibiotics, the most prominent of which was streptomycin, the first effective pharmaceutical treatment for tuberculosis. Unlike the chance discovery of penicillin, streptomycin was isolated in 1943 by Albert Schatz using screening protocols developed by Waksman. Also unlike penicillin, which attacked only certain types of pathogenic bacteria, streptomycin was effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria. Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952.
