Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Merchants and bonnie babies
- Part II Pharmaceuticals in Britain
- 6 Glaxo Laboratories and the hinge of fortune: the Second World War
- 7 Pharmaceuticals triumphant 1946–1962
- 8 Research and development: a strategy of science?
- 9 The development and commercial exploitation of griseofulvin
- Part III Internationalisation of pharmaceuticals
- Appendix: Glaxo statistics
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
9 - The development and commercial exploitation of griseofulvin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Merchants and bonnie babies
- Part II Pharmaceuticals in Britain
- 6 Glaxo Laboratories and the hinge of fortune: the Second World War
- 7 Pharmaceuticals triumphant 1946–1962
- 8 Research and development: a strategy of science?
- 9 The development and commercial exploitation of griseofulvin
- Part III Internationalisation of pharmaceuticals
- Appendix: Glaxo statistics
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Glaxo's research and development activities did not result in the discovery or development of a major new marketable product. Developing fermentation techniques for penicillin production had absorbed the company's resources and interests during the war years, strongly supported by national demand and cooperative industrial support. The wartime research was focused on production or production-related demands and despite its successes created within Glaxo Laboratories an ad hoc research programme centred on short-term commercial prospects rather than long-term goals. Recognising the need for more long-term and more speculative projects, Glaxo directors began to undertake in the post-war period research programmes with potential commercial and scientific merit.
The commercial development of griseofulvin represented to Glaxo researchers and management a project vindicating the firm's investment in laboratory Rand D. Developed initially as an agricultural product and later as a systemic fungistatic for human and veterinary application, griseofulvin proved a revolutionary agent in treating Dermatophytoses. Moreover, it was the first major commercial pharmaceutical product identified and developed by Glaxo, rather than licensed from the USA and manufactured by a process refined at Greenford. Its low toxicity and systemic activity created international medical interest and attracted wide attention in the professional press. Its commercial development at Sefton Park was also quick, drawing on scientific expertise and existing deep fermentation production facilities. Although previous ICI findings and extramural experimental work contributed to its development, griseofulvin project researchers and those involved with its promotion identified Glaxo with the antibiotic's success.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- GlaxoA History to 1962, pp. 200 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992