Penicillin

Nowadays various antibiotics are widely used to treat many infectious diseases which seem to be common and even negligible in our livers. However, before the 1940s a number of diseases and simple wounds were difficult to cure and even severely lead to death due to unavailability of effective medicine against bacterial infections (Wong, 2003). Fortunately, in 1928 the discovery of penicillium notatum by Alexander Fleming made a breakthrough, which opened a new avenue for medical research of antibiotics (Lantos, et al, 2006). As the first practical one, penicillin underwent a long history before its availability for practical application. The medical innovation of penicillin is a gradual process. It lasts almost twenty years which contains a large amount of scientific research and experiments. In this report, there is an explicit presentation about the innovation process of penicillin from the initial discovery to full establishment in the market. First part refers to a brief summary of the history of penicillin discovery, and development for medical application and mass production. Next, it will emphasize on critical analysis innovation process all the way from theory to practice. At last, impact and contribution of penicillin will be appropriately examined, which also includes prospective trend of its further development.

Many historical documents recorded that humans used molds and fermented materials to treat bacterial diseases as early as 1500BC (Wong, 2003). However, the result was unexpected, cure or death. There were also some related observations which ended with unsuccessful outcomes until Fleming’s discovery. In 1928, Fleming was doing some research about staphylococcus aureus, and found that one of plates was contaminated by a yellow-green mold in the open environment (Bellis, ND; Lemelson﹒MIT Program, 2003). On the plate, the colonies of bacteria surrounding the mold were dissolved. That raised Fleming’s curiosity. He suspected that there must be...