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To Dr. Fleming, whose pioneer mind has reverted to watching and waiting, penicillin is not an end, but a beginning. He foresees that when the chemical structure of penicillin is known, chemists will make many new potent drugs out of it. And his eyes are already fixed on fungoidal infinities. For there are at least 100,000 molds and fungi, any one of which may one day supplant Penicittium notatum, or yield a drug with which to cure the many plagues penicillin leaves untouched. "It would be strange indeed," says Dr. Fleming, who is hard at work on other antibiotics, "if the first one described remained the best."
* They will get the drug from 21 manufacturers (two Canadian, the rest U.S.) now or soon to be in production. Manufacturers will make about 100 billion units in May, about 200 billion units by the end of the year. The Army & Navy have plenty of penicillin for current needs (about 12 billion units a month), and a small stockpile against Dday. Normal civilian needs are expected to be 66 billion a month, export needs 15 billion. The 21 factories will have a top capacity of nine pounds (almost 7 billion units) a day, compared with a total production last year of about 15 pounds. Prices now vary from $2.85 to $10 for 100,000 units (last year's price: $20).
* Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Last year he added F.R.S. (Fellow of the Royal Society), a great honor.