NEW DRUGS DEVELOPED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30147, 3 June 1963, Page 7

NEW DRUGS DEVELOPED

“Super-Penicillin”

Antibiotic

(N.Z.P.A.-R cuter—Copy rig ht) LONDON, May 31. New “super-penicillin” drugs will soon be on the ! market m Britain and the United States, according to statements today by two leading pharmaceutical companies.

The drugs are based on cephalosporin, a mould discovered on rocks off the coast of Sardinia, in the Mediterranean. Their development began in 1955 A spokesman for the British firm, Glaxo Laboratories, said today that the new family of drugs could tackle many of the infections at present’treated by penicillin and other infections resistant to it. The new drugs also appeared to be less toxic than penicillin and would be suitable for those who were allergic to it, according to the spokesman. A spokesman for the United States company, Eli Lilly, said they were applying to the United States Food and Drug Administration for a licence for one of the new drugs. It would be an antibiotic which would be complementary to penicillin but it would not supersede penicillin, he said.

Research on the new drugs —which are related to penicillin but have a different chemical structure —began in Oxford, under a team of scientists led by the Austra-lian-born Sir Howard Florey, who is already famous for his work on penicillin. The project then looked so promising that it was financed by the British Medical Research Council.