The discovery of penicillin in 1929 marked the beginning of the modern age of antibiotics. Penicillin's influence on modern medicine was immense, proving effective in treating previously deadly diseases, such as scarlet fever and syphilis, and giving rise to the antibiotic industry. However, although its antibiotic potential was immediately apparent, large-scale production and clinical testing did not take place until the outbreak of World War II. Immense military losses and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among soldiers in World War II created a demand for penicillin. Thus, the demand for an antibiotic created by World War II incited an international effort between the United States, England, and Canada to accelerate the mass production and clinical testing of penicillin. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Penicillin was first discovered in 1929 by Alexander Fleming at St. Mary's Hospital in London. Fleming observed that a mold spore contaminated a Petri dish containing Staphylococcus, thereby inhibiting the growth of the organism. After further research, Fleming recorded that Penicillin notatum mold could dissolve staphylococcal microbes, thus resulting in the appearance of the antibiotic penicillin. However, two major obstacles prevented penicillin's immediate widespread use following its discovery. Penicillin had to be administered intracutaneously or intravainally in a series of injections as close to the infected area as possible, as oral ingestion proved ineffective. Because penicillin is excreted from the human body at such a rapid rate, maintaining adequate concentrations of the antibiotic would be necessary for effective use. However, at the time of Alexander Fleming's discovery there was no economical method to mass-produce the mold. Therefore, despite the immense possibilities associated with Fleming's discovery, penicillin production and research remained dormant. Indeed, “if it had not been for the war, it is very likely that [penicillin] would still be little more than a laboratory curiosity” (Elder). World War II sparked the penicillin craze in England. In 1939, Dr. H. W. Florey led an Oxford group committed to renewing and reviving penicillin's immense potential as a wartime drug. The first real support from outside England came in 1941, when a five thousand dollar grant was made by Rockefeller to support the advancement of Dr. Florey's work. However, as conditions in England rapidly worsened due to the ongoing war, Dr. Florey and his collaborator, Dr. N.C. Heatley, were forced to visit the United States and share their studies so that progress toward an antibiotic could continue on safe ground. The Office of Scientific Research and Development oversaw the initial work on penicillin in the United States. The shift from predominantly English to American research marked a key moment in the development of penicillin, because prior to Dr. Florey's decision to share his research in hopes of speeding up the process, U.S. contributions to the penicillin effort were minimal, as evident from the meager grant given to Foley by the Rockefeller Foundation. If Dr. Foley had not included the United States in the development of penicillin, England's dwindling funding and resources due to World War II might havehalt the progress of penicillin, thus leaving thousands of soldiers to die of treatable penicillin infections. As the demand for penicillin for World War II was increasing, the penicillin project went international thanks to Dr. Foley. The United States played the most significant role in the production of penicillin. Dr. Robert D. Coghill of the Fermentation Division of the Northern Regional Research Laboratory, a mold culture research facility established in 1940, pioneered the production of penicillin in the United States. Dr. Coghill was one of those contacted by Dr. Florey during his visit to the United States. His research group, competent in the field of fermentation, took on the challenge of increasing yield and recovery in penicillin production. First investigated by French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in 1860, fermentation refers to the process by which large organic molecules are broken down into smaller ones. Therefore, the science of fermentation had been available for some time before Dr. Coghill's encounter with penicillin. However, the fermentation process at present did not provide a sufficient yield to prove effective, because not only was there an increasing demand for the drug but quantities of penicillin must be maintained in the patient due to the rapid excretion of the drug. In response to this dilemma, Dr. A. J. Mayer, an associate of Dr. Coghill, discovered that mold yield increased tenfold with the addition of corn steep liquor to the liquid on which the mold was growing. In a short period after this discovery, “the yield had increased from two to forty Oxford units per cubic centimeter” (Elder). Soon after this increase in the yield of penicillin, the Drug and Cosmetics Section of the Chemical Division of the War Production Board took responsibility for speeding up production. The War Production Committee evaluated three primary methods of production: the drip process, the surface process, and the submerged process. The dripping process involved pouring the inoculated concentrate onto stones or wood under sterile conditions so that the mold adhered to the surfaces while the liquid continued to flow. This method proved too expensive for practical production. The surface process involved growing the mold on the surface of a medium under sterile conditions. This process produced good harvests, however the long cultivation cycles and expensive equipment made the process unsuitable for mass production. Finally, the submerged process involved aerating the mold for several days while it grew in the broth. At the end of the fermentation cycle, the penicillin was removed from the broth and the mycelium was discarded. This was the most effective and economical method of production as it produced high yields at a relatively low cost. The results of these method experiments were astronomical. The combination of more efficient fermentation and increased development of production facilities intensified the production of penicillin. By 1944, the United States War Production Committee had funded the completion of eighteen manufacturing plants. Penicillin production began with 0.4 billion units in June 1944, and increased exponentially to 0.7 in July, 0.8 in August, 1.7 in September, 2.8 in October, 4.8 in November and 9.1 in December (Florey). These production statistics highlight the immediate positive effects of the War Production Board's funding and leadership. The need for penicillin for the armed forces during World War II was recognized by the Drugs and Cosmetics Section of theChemical Department, therefore the leadership of the War Production Board urged to accelerate the process of improving the penicillin fermentation process in an attempt to successfully mass produce penicillin. mold. The production of penicillin to meet the demand of the armed forces during World War II was promoted on an international scale in 1943. Prior to 1943, penicillin production was limited to the United States due to its accessibility to funding, equipment, and research. However, in August 1943, the Canadian federal government showed interest in establishing manufacturing facilities in Canada to ensure that the Canadian Armed Forces had access to the antibiotic. Similar to research conducted at universities in the United States, Canada began funding Dr. Philip Greey to undertake penicillin studies at the University of Toronto's Department of Pathology and Bacteriology. The United States greatly aided Canada's efforts. As a result of cooperation between the Canadian federal government and the United States, the War Production Board released Dr. Coghill's research to Canada and provided essential equipment for the facilities. The collaboration between the United States and Canada was so effective that large-scale production began in Montreal and Toronto in August 1943. By 1944, Canada had three manufacturing plants. Canada's involvement in World War II prompted this attempt to join the United States in mass producing penicillin. To combat the increasing brutality of war and decrease infection rates among wounded soldiers, Canada turned to the United States for help and mentorship. Thus, World War II was responsible for spurring international cooperation, which led to increased research, the creation of production facilities, and ultimately the expansion of penicillin's influence in the 1940s. In addition to the military's demand for penicillin as an infection preventative for wounded soldiers, World War II presented the United States with a new demand. Beginning in 1940, U.S. medical researchers were tasked with combating the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among soldiers who contracted them from prostitutes. Although studies on penicillin's effectiveness against STDs were limited, the U.S. Army began using penicillin as a post-exposure STD treatment due to its ability to prevent symptoms of syphilis. Due to this new military demand for penicillin and the lack of research on penicillin as a prophylactic drug against sexually transmitted diseases, the United States began investing funds to conduct clinical trials. The first major penicillin trial was conducted in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1943. Researchers attempted to infect willing prisoners at the Terre Haute penitentiary with gonorrhea. However, the Terre Haute prison experiment ultimately failed to infect enough inmates with gonorrhea to obtain reliable results. Therefore, penicillin's effectiveness against sexually transmitted diseases remained inconclusive, prompting the United States to fund another, larger experiment. Based on the Terre Haute experiment, the Guatemala syphilis experiment was conducted from 1946 to 1948. This American penicillin medical research project was widely recognized for its unethical experimentation and techniques on the vulnerable population of Guatemala. Unlike the Terre Haute experiments, this study was intended to determine the effectiveness of penicillin.