Avermectin and ivermectin
Avermectina e ivermectina
- Date
- 1974-1979 · confidence high
- Place
- Kitasato Institute, Minato, Tokyo, Japan
- Credited to
- Ōmura Satoshi (Kitasato Institute) and William Campbell (Merck)
- People
- 👤 Satoshi Ōmura1935–👤 William Campbell1923–2011
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Ōmura isolated the bacterium Streptomyces avermitilis from a Japanese soil sample, and Merck discovered its powerful antiparasitic action. Ivermectin has protected hundreds of millions of people from river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.
The strain came from a soil sample from Kawana (Itō, Shizuoka). Nobel Prize in Medicine 2015 for Ōmura and Campbell (with Tu Youyou).
What it led to
- control of onchocerciasis in Africa
- campaigns against lymphatic filariasis
- veterinary antiparasitics