Penicillin

The challenge of mass-producing this drug was daunting.

On March 14, 1942, the first patient was treated for streptococcal septicemia with US-made penicillin produced by Merck & Co.

Half of the total supply produced at the time was used on that one patient. 

By June 1942, just enough US penicillin was available to treat ten patients.

In July 1943, the War Production Board drew up a plan for the mass distribution of penicillin stocks to Allied troops fighting in Europe.

The results of fermentation research on corn steep liquor at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, allowed the United States to produce 2.3 million doses in time for the invasion of Normandy in the spring of 1944.

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