What do Penicillin, Viagra and LSD have in common? Learn how some accidents resulted in great pharmaceutical discoveries.
Failure does not always lead to success. It is a controversial statement, we know; however, we also know that failure works in mysterious ways. Ways that, at times, bring wisdom and learnings, which with success we could never obtain.
That is why we now bring you three fuck ups (if you can call them that), which have inspired scientific research, were mass marketed as affordable drugs, or at least surprised the scientific community with unexpected plot twists in the pharmaceutical industry:
Although some earlier research had already suggested the idea of bacteria fighting to the death against certain types of molds, it was Dr. Alexander Fleming who unwittingly set to work to test this theory in 1928. It was Dr. Alexander Fleming, who unwittingly set out to test this theory in 1928.
The bacteriologist at St. Mary's Hospital, London, was returning from a peaceful vacation in Scotland to find an unexpected moisture problem: mold was forming on the Petri dishes he had left in his lab.
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Interestingly, it so happened that a colony of Staphylococcus aerus (a dangerous bacterium that causes various diseases) had been invaded by a type of mold called Penicillium notatum. After a quick look under the microscope, Fleming discovered that the mold had prevented the pathogen from developing. After repeating the accident, he successfully confirmed the finding.
"When I woke up that morning of September 28, it definitely wasn't in my plans to revolutionize the medicine industry by discovering the world's first antibiotic. But I guess that's just what I did."
-Dr. Alexander Fleming
As Alexander was about to retire and had few resources to isolate the active ingredient, several researchers continued with the experiments and the development of the final product that we all have in our medicine cabinets: Penicillin, which was ready 14 years after Fleming's discovery.
Finally, it was in 1945 that Alexander Fleming won a Nobel Prize for his discovery, but not before warning us in his acceptance speech of the potential risk of generating something called bacterial resistance(a fuck up that affects us today).
In the late 1990s, a nurse in charge of a group of Pfizer test patients noticed something very strange. Some of them were lying face down and looked embarrassed.
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Before long, the nurse noticed that the patients were having erections....
After some successful animal testing and corroborating that there were no side effects, Pfizer decided to initiate human trials of the promising drug Sildenafil. An ingredient capable of dilating the heart's blood vessels by blocking the PDE-5 protein, and a potential solution to treat cardiovascular problems.
But apparently, Sildenafil decided to dilate blood vessels in other parts of the body.
They continued testing on volunteers with the same result. It was then that the CEO of Pfizer's research department, Ian Osterloh and his team decided to go ahead and find out where this discovery would lead them. As the cardiovascular problems were barely solved by this drug, they chose to focus on a new pilot to treat erectile dysfunction .
Rumors about this new drug spread quickly, resulting in hundreds of letters from people with erectile dysfunction, communicating their frustration, embarrassment and psychological impact, as well as desperation for an effective treatment soon.
These letters convinced Pfizer to proceed with the research and rush through the costly and time-consuming process of obtaining a license.
In 1998, Viagra was officially put on sale, helping about 62 million people in 20 years. Until now, Pfizer will lose the patent in 2020. (erections accessible to all, hooray!)
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In the Europe of the Middle Ages, people died from Ergotism(also known as St. Anthony's fire): convulsions, detachment of limbs, dementia and hallucinations were some of the symptoms before death. Ergot, a fungus present in rye was causing this terrible disease.
And although the ravages of Ergot were terrible, people soon discovered that it was an excellent remedy for stopping bleeding in childbirth and a way to induce labor.
These curious effects on this devastating agent motivated Professor Arthur Stoll to isolate the active ingredient, which he believed could stimulate the circulatory and respiratory systems.
Years later, Stoll founded his own laboratory and added Albert Hoffman to his team, who continued Stoll's mission. After a long and confusing process of purification and after achieving many synthesized substances (which we will not explain on this occasion because we are not scientists), Hoffman obtained in his 25th attempt a substance called LSD-25 (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide).
The substance would be responsible for stimulating the circulatory system, but it only ended up stirring up a bunch of lab mice, which caused Albert to leave the research for 5 years. But it left him with a restlessness about the subject.
In 1943, driven by curiosity, Hoffman gave LSD a twenty-sixth try, and tried again to synthesize the substance. This time, he had to stop in the middle of the experiment, due to a sudden and strange sensation of dizziness and restlessness, followed by an uninterrupted "series of fantastic images, extraordinary figures with intense and kaleidoscopic colors."
"I didn't choose LSD; LSD found me and called me."
-Dr. Albert Hoffman
Days later, in a brave (or stupid) attempt to record the experience, Hoffmann ingested (at 4:20 pm) a controlled dose of LSD-25 and recorded his findings: dizziness, hallucinations and an uncontrollable desire to laugh.
After the discovery, Albert returned home by bicycle, which would become an iconic date for LSD enthusiasts: Bicycle Day.
While tests were running to treat depression and anxiety, LSD fever broke out in the 1960s as a fun recreational substance, and Hoffman witnessed the demonization and banning of its discovery as a medical solution by the UN and the United States.
The potential of LSD as a drug remains hidden. But what is certain is that laughter was never lacking during this discovery.
So... What did we learn from these three experiences? Don't be afraid of failure, try 25 times if necessary, you may not get what you expected, but a sea of exciting possibilities and discoveries can be laid out before us.
Edited by
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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