The Journey from "Mold" to "Cure"

Though Fleming’s discovery was published, little attention was paid
to him until ten years later by an Australian doctor named Howard Florey
(of the University of Oxford). Florey believed that there was an
antibiotic stronger than Sulfa drugs, so he was quite interested in
Fleming’s finds.
Obtaining strains of penicillium notatum from Fleming (which he had
kept alive from the original strain), he enlisted the help of a chemist by
the name of Ernst Chain. The two then went about creating a purified form
of penicillin. Months later, their hard work paid off; they then had
enough purified penicillin to run tests on mice. Amazing success was found
in the mice that they had given penicillin.
From the mice, they eventually advanced on to a human test. They tested
the penicillin out on a forty-three year old policeman who had a bad case
of blood poisoning. Within the twenty-four hours of giving the man the
penicillin, he showed remarkable recovery and continued to grow healthier
until they ran out of penicillin. Before they could get him a new supply,
he grew worse and finally died.
They had to then figure out a way of manufacturing large supplies of
penicillin at a time. Florey decided to enlist help from America in the
manufacturing process. The United States penicillin" (which is what I
call it).
Just years before, Florey only had a small team and few ways of
creating penicillin. Now, with the help of many American scientists,
chemists, etc. working on project penicillin, they could help save
millions of lives. They didn’t know that in 1959, productions could be
bigger than ever because they then began testing synthetically made
penicillin (this meant get penicillin directly from chemicals instead of
mold). government put millions of dollars into the plan and got five of
the biggest American companies in on the production. Soon, they had
hundreds of people working on "project penicillin" (which is
what I call it).
Just years before, Florey only had a small team and few ways of
creating penicillin. Now, with the help of many American scientists,
chemists, etc. working on project penicillin, they could help save
millions of lives. They didn’t know that in 1959, productions could be
bigger than ever because they then began testing synthetically made
penicillin (this meant get penicillin directly from chemicals instead of
mold).
