Pfizer: Difference between revisions

World War I caused a shortage of [[calcium citrate]]. Pfizer imported the compound from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and due to the disruption in supply, the company began a search for an alternative.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Malhotra |first=Girish K. |title=Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Manufacturing: Nondestructive Creation |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-11-070284-2 |pages=7 }}</ref> They found this in the form of a [[fungus]] capable of fermenting sugar to citric acid. By 1919, the company was able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source.<ref name=":5" /> The company developed expertise in fermentation technology as a result. These skills were applied to the [[History of penicillin#Deep submergence for industrial production|deep-submergence mass production]] of [[penicillin]], an [[antibiotic]], during [[World War II]] in response to the need to treat injured Allied soldiers.<ref name=Fermentation>{{Cite web |title=Penicillin Production through Deep-tank Fermentation – National Historic Chemical Landmark |url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/penicillin.html |publisher=[[American Chemical Society]]}}</ref> The company also embarked on a global [[soil]] collection program related to improving production yields of penicillin which ultimately resulted in 135,000 samples.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Johnson (author) |title=Extra Life |publisher=[[Riverhead Books]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-525-53885-1 |edition=1st |pages=160 }}</ref>