Drug Discovery Development

Question: Discuss about theDrug Discovery Development. Answer: Introduction The discovery of penicillin in 1940s led to the revolutionalization of the medical field because it was the first antibiotic which led to the cure and control of many infections. This antibiotic was accidentally discovered by Doctor Alexander Fleming, a British microbiologist after the return from vacation only to find a messed up bench in the laboratory (Ligon, 2004). Upon examination in the microscope it was found that the staphylococcus bacteria could be inhibited by the mold which was later found to have Penicillin notatum. Since Fleming had no chemical background and there were no enough resources, no much work was done. At that time, the hospitals were full of people with untreatable bacterial infections like gonorrhea while others had blood infections from scratches and bruises (Chain, 1979). Commercial Production of Penicillin During the wars, most people died not because of injuries, but because of bacterial infections in the battle field. When the Second World War started, penicillin was manufactured in the United States in large amounts and it was used for the treatments during the war, and for sure it bore fruits (Quinn, 2013). Again during the wall in Iraq, many units of penicillin used to be supplied to the fighting soldiers and this helped them a lot. Much research work was carried out in more advanced laboratories in an effort to produce large amounts of penicillin. Researchers found that if the growth medium containing lactose was substituted with lactose, more amounts were produced. A ten-fold increase in the amount of penicillin was produced if corn was added to the fermentation medium. Moreover even larger amounts were produced when the fermentation was carried out in a submerged medium. This involved the use of large tanks which are aerated and continuously agitated as opposed to the use of the surface of the growth medium. The pharmaceutical companies then teamed up with the scientists so as to increase the production of penicillin to large scale from the use of pilot plants. The problems of engineering technology also posed great threats to the pharmaceutical companies but the teams especially due to continuous aeration as well as agitation. To this end, successful research and large scale production of penicillin have been the efforts of scientists, chemical engineers, chemists, pharmaceutical companies, the government and microbiologists. The Overall Effect of Penicillin to the Medical Field Before penicillin discovery, there were some fatal bacterial infections which used to claim the lives of many people. During the war, the soldiers who were seriously injured used to undergo amputations. However, with penicillin development, the cases of amputations during wars reduced by enormous rates (Gust, 2014). Moreover, the insight into penicillin for widespread treatment of diseases made several other pharmaceutical companies to begin screening other products for the ability to kill bacteria. This has led to discovery of several other types of pharmaceutical products which reduce the risk of death from other serious microbes (Rizzello and Pompa, 2014). It is important to note that unlike other drugs which require randomized trials before being used on people, the use of penicillin in the treatment of bacterial endocarditis and pneumococcal pneumonia had no randomized trials because the effects of penicillin was far much better than other treatment agents. What if Fleming did not Discover Penicillin? There are some people up to this day who blame Doctor Fleming for being passive in the eventual development of penicillin. This is why other scientists who came after Fleming were able to carry out detailed research leading to eventual use of the drug in the medical field. It is also thought that if Fleming did not discover penicillin, possibly other people would have discovered it, though after quite some time. This is because the application of sulfonamides drugs which was discovered by other people was found to help other soldiers who had no access to penicillin and it helped them very well, though not as compared to those who had access to penicillin (Lewis, 2012). During the early days, commercialization of the drug was a challenge due to low level of knowledge and technology and hence only few units were produced. Currently, the penicillin and its derivatives are available to every corner of the world for use. This indicates that the future of antibiotics is very bright since other drugs and modifications of penicillin have occurred. Conclusion With the great contributions of antibiotics, the human life has been improved because even fatal bacterial diseases can be treated. The patients should be advised to maintain their dose so that they can avoid the problem of drug resistance owing to the long period taken to produce novel antibiotics. Reference List Chain, E. (1979). The early years of the penicillin discovery. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 1(1), pp. 6-11. Gust, I., 2014. Penicillin: World War II infections and Howard Florey. Microbiology Australia, 35(3), pp.177-178. Lewis, K., 2012. Antibiotics: Recover the lost art of drug discovery. Nature, 485(7399), pp.439-440. Ligon, B.L., 2004. Penicillin: its discovery and early development. In Seminars in pediatric infectious diseases, 15 (1), pp. 52-57. Quinn, R. (2013). Rethinking antibiotic research and development: World War II and the penicillin collaborative. American journal of public health, 103(3), pp. 426-434. Rizzello, L. and Pompa, P.P., 2014. 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