History of antibiotic development

The discovery of antibiotics represented a key milestone in the history of medicine.

Brief history of antibiotic development as medicines

1928: Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin. However, it took over a decade before penicillin was introduced as a treatment for bacterial infections.

1930s: The first commercially available antibacterial was Prontosil, a sulfonamide developed by the German biochemist Gerhard Domagk.

1945: Penicillin was introduced on a large scale as a treatment for bacterial infections. This was possible through the work of Florey and Chain who managed to efficiently purify the antibiotic and scale-up production. The introduction of penicillin marked the beginning of the so-called “golden era” of antibiotics.

1940 – 1962: The golden era of antibiotics. Most of the antibiotic classes we use as medicines today were discovered and introduced to the market. Each class typically contains several antibiotics that have been discovered over time or are modified versions of previous types. There are for example numerous β-lactams (pronounced beta-lactams) such as different penicillins and cephalosporins.

Lack of new antibiotics

The antibiotic golden era was followed by a gradual decrease in the development of novel therapeutic options until 1987. At this point a “discovery void” started to affect the world health system.

Today, there are very few novel antibiotics under development. At the same time, antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming more and more common, making available antibiotics ineffective. Thus, we are now facing a major health problem. Read more about the problems with antibiotic discovery and development in How did we end up here? – Few antibiotics under development.

Selected Resources