The Diverse Search for Synthetic, Semisynthetic and Natural Product Antibiotics From the 1940s and Up to 1960 Exemplified by a Small Pharmaceutical Player.

ABSTRACT: The 1940s and 1950s witnessed a diverse search for not just natural product antibiotics but also for synthetic and semisynthetic compounds. This review revisits this epoch, using the research by a Danish pharmaceutical company, LEO Pharma, as an example. LEO adopted a strategy searching for synthetic antibiotics toward specific bacterial pathogens, in particular Mycobacterium tuberculosis, leading to the discovery of a new derivative of a known drug. Work on penicillin during and after WWII lead to the development of associated salts/esters and a search for new natural product antibiotics. This led initially to no new, marketable compounds, but concluded with the serendipitous discovery of fusidic acid, an antibiotic used to treat infections by Staphylococcus aureus, in 1960.

SUBMITTER: Leisner JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7303287 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature