The document discusses the discovery and development of penicillin. It was discovered accidentally in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, but it took further work by Florey, Chain, and others to develop methods to mass produce it. A key development was the addition of corn steep liquor to the growth process by Andrew Moyer, for which he received a patent. Penicillin transformed medicine, saving millions of lives and greatly increasing survival rates for bacterial infections and diseases. It also transformed the pharmaceutical industry. While penicillin itself was not patented, the US government held patents on production processes and ensured widespread availability through subsidization and licensing agreements.

1. PENICILLINS
The Accidental Answer
Bryony Harris, J. Ademar Perez, and Zixiang Sun
International Innovation | Dr. Deli Yang | March 23, 2016

2. INTRODUCTION
FORMS:
PENICILLINS
● a group of antibiotics, extracted from mold called
Penicillium fungi, used to treat a range of bacterial
infections
PHARMACY
Department
ORALLY
Pills, capsules,
and liquids
INJECTION
STRUCTURE
● Brief History
● Patent Assessment
○ Production method, not the mold
● Impacts of Invention
● Patent Management
● Conclusion
Bacterial infections including Lyme Disease,
Typhoid, “Strep” (Streptococci), “Staph”
(Staphylococcal), and more.

3. BACKGROUND
DR. ALEXANDER FLEMING
● Credited with discovering Penicillin by accident in 1928
● Lacked the resources to isolate, test, and mass produce it
DR.s FLOREY, CHAIN, & HEATLEY
● Developed a way to mass produce Penicillin
● Initially tested on mice, eventually humans
● A major issue: production of large enough quantities
of sufficient penicillin for therapeutic use
● Took Penicillin to the U.S. to further test mass
production methods
Andrew J. Morely, with Norman Heatley, suggested
adding corn steep liquor to the growth process,
eventually filing for patent as sole inventor.
Particularly useful for WWII: death rate of bacterial
pneumonia dropped to 1% from 18% during WWI

4. PATENTABILITY ASSESSMENT
NOVELTY
NON-OBVIOUSNESS
UTILITY
New production process; different
from every other process before it
Heavily researched; the laymen
couldn’t understand how to cultivate
and grow the mold
Saved millions of lives
AT THE TIME OF SUBMISSION
Patent No. US2442141 A
ANDREW J. MOYER
May 25, 1948

5. IMPACT
COUNTRIES INDUSTRIES
COMPANIES INDIVIDUALS
Antibiotics have aided in making the health
industry the mammoth it is: organ donations,
cancer treatment, deadly infections, and more
It’s estimated that over 80 million lives
have been saved thanks to antibiotics;
however, more bacteria are becoming resistant
to
In 2010, over 7.3 billion su of Penicillin were
consumed worldwide. Since 2000, usage has
increased by 36% in Brazil, Russia, India, China,
and South Africa.
Highly profitable in the 1940s. Due to high costs
and risk, R&D for antibiotics has been little to
none. In 2012, Congress passed the GAIN Act
(Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now).

6. MANAGERIAL STRENGTHS & FAILURES
ANTI-PATENT MANAGEMENT STORY
PATENT MANAGEMENT
● Penicillin itself is not patented
● USDA held a cluster of production
process patents, licensed for free
to any interested party; gov’t
scientists were at the center of
progress;
● Pharma agreed to share
information and reciprocal
licensing;
● Tactics: gov’t subsidized
manufacture and guaranteed
market
SUCCESSFUL RESULT
● Rapid expansion in research and
production capacity without
patent
● Penicillin widely available
● Transformed Pharma from
manufacturers to researchers
WEAKNESS
● The success of this management
strategy is not repeatable without
government being the big buyer,
unlikely in current political system
● Pharma were dissatisfied with
low price of Penicillin and turned
to patent-protected drugs

7. First antibiotic
in human history
Academics, gov’t, pharma
cooperated closely
to develop it
Transformed
pharma industry
CONCLUSIONS

8. REFERENCES
● http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/216798.php
● http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-
antibiotic/
● https://www.princeton.edu/~slevin/PDF/Levinpubs/PDFWEB2014/515_VanBo
eckelGlobal_2014.pdf
● http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3504413/Breakthrough-fight-agains
t-superbugs-scientists-discover-exactly-build-resistance-antibiotics.html
● http://www.healthline.com/health/antibiotics/why-pipeline-running-dry
● http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109405/
● http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/news/print/endocrine-today/%7B15afd2
a1-2084-4ca6-a4e6-7185f5c4cfb0%7D/penicillin-an-accidental-discovery-cha
nged-the-course-of-medicine
● http://info.articleonepartners.com/historical-patents-the-automobile-and-penic
illin/
● http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673487/
● https://mises.org/blog/patent-and-penicillin
● http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_econstat_wp_26.pdf