In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College
Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in
microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab, searching
for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines
and at home. On his eleventh experiment on a common
bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered
streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis,
at that time the world's leading killer disease. As
director of Schatz's research, Waksman took credit for
the discovery, belittled Schatz's work, and secretly
enriched himself with royalties from the streptomycin
patent filed by Merck, the pharmaceutical company. In an
unprecedented lawsuit, young Schatz sued Waksman, was
awarded the title of "co-discoverer" and a share of the
royalties. But two years later, Professor Waksman alone
was awarded the Nobel Prize. Schatz disappeared into
academic obscurity. For the first time, acclaimed
author and journalist Peter Pringle reveals the scandals
behind one of the most important discoveries in the
history of medicine. The story unfolds on a tiny college
campus in New Jersey, but its repercussions spread
worldwide. The streptomycin patent was a breakthrough
for the drug companies, overturning patent limits on
products of nature and paving the way for today's
biotech world. As dozens more antibiotics were found,
many from the same family as streptomycin, the drug
companies created oligopolies and reaped big profits.
Pringle uses first-hand accounts and archives in the
U.S. and Europe to unravel the intensely human story
behind the discovery that started a revolution in the
treatment of infectious diseases and shaped the future
of Big Pharma
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