In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered that the mold Penicillium could destroy Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria at St. Mary's hospital in London. No one knew at the time that his observations could be of value. The bacteriologist continued experimenting with the mold and found that it could destroy many disease- causing bacteria. In 1929 he published his observations and named the mold Penicillin.
In 1939 at Oxford University, Dr. Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began researching how penicillin could kill infectious bacteria. Because of the war with Germany, they couldn't produce enough for clinical trials. So on July 9, 1941, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley came to the United States with the penicillin looking for help.
Andrew J. Moyer was able to increase production of penicillin by 10 times. Soon enough, there were clinical trials wich proved penicillin to be the best antibacterial agent of that time. After many experiments and a lof of people's help, penicillin production was high enough to help heal wounded soldiers on D-Day. As penicillin became more popular the price started dropping from nearly priceless, to $20 per dose, to $0.55 per dose. Andrew J. Moyer got a patent for the mass production of penicillin.
Andrew Moyer was put in the Inventor's Hall of Fame and Fleming, Florey, and Chain recieved a Nobel Prize.
Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, Ernst Chain
Andrew Moyer
http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm
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