Transcript

WOMAN:

Behind this door is the original lab of the pioneering Oxford scientist Howard Florey. And it was in here that a team of brilliant minds turned Fleming's rather unexpected discovery into a miracle cure.

This is the room where antibiotics were truly invented at the dawn of the Second World War. The team invented a way to purify the mould juice by combining it with ether and alkalines that drew away the harmful elements, creating an antibiotic pure enough for humans to take.

Scientist and historian Dr. Eric Sidebottom was a pupil of the men involved. Clearly, if it was going to do any good at all to the masses it had to be mass produced. So were they able to develop penicillin here in Great Britain?

DR. ERIC SIDEBOTTOM:

Yes, to some extent they were, but Florey was always worried that he couldn't really persuade the British pharmaceutical industry to get involved. They were already committed to the war effort.

So Florey made this difficult decision to take the problem to America. And the Americans did help. They increased production very considerably. They found a better strain of penicillium on a local melon in the market. They also managed to get it growing in a huge suspension tank, in a big tank. Whereas in Oxford, we'd grown it in bedpans.