Chloramphenicol was originally derived from the bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae, isolated by David Gottlieb, and introduced into clinical practice in 1949, under the trade name Chloromycetin. It was the first antibiotic to be manufactured synthetically on a large scale.
The topical formulation of chloramphenicol was commonly used as eye drops as first-line treatment of conjunctivitis. The first fatality from eye drops was reported in 1955.[40]
In 2007, the accumulation of reports associating aplastic anemia and blood dyscrasia with chloramphenicol eye drops lead to the classification of “probable” according to World Health Organization criteria, based on the known published case reports and the spontaneous reports submitted to the National Registry of Drug-Induced Ocular Side Effects.[41]