15.4 Industrial Production of Penicillins
and Tetracyclines
Once a new antibiotic has been characterized and proven medically
effective and nontoxic in tests on experimental animals,
it is ready for clinical trials on humans. If the new drug proves
clinically effective and passes toxicity and other tests, it is given
FDA approval and is ready to be produced commercially. We
focus here on the penicillins and tetracyclines, antibiotics that
are produced by the ton for medical and veterinary use.