Synthesis of tetracycline
Síntesis de la tetraciclina
- Date
- 1952 · confidence high
- Place
- Brooklyn, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Lloyd Conover (Pfizer laboratories)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Chemist Lloyd Conover obtains tetracycline by catalytically removing the chlorine from chlortetracycline (Aureomycin) through hydrogenolysis, creating the first antibiotic deliberately modified from an existing one.
Builds on chlortetracycline (Aureomycin), discovered by Benjamin Duggar in 1945; tetracycline was patented in 1953 and approved for clinical use in 1954.
What it led to
- Modern family of semisynthetic tetracycline antibiotics
- Legal precedent on the patentability of compounds derived by chemical synthesis
- Most widely prescribed broad-spectrum antibiotic in the US for years