Pfizer’s Terramycin: The Wonder Drug From Indiana Soil

January 27, 1950 

Science magazine announced a brand new antibiotic made by Charles Pfizer & Company called Terramycin.

Pfizer & Co. was a small chemical company based in Brooklyn, New York.

The company developed an expertise in fermentation with citric acid.

The method allowed them to mass-produce drugs.

When Pfizer scientists discovered an antibiotic in a soil sample from Indiana, their deep-tank fermentation method allowed them to mass-produce Terramycin.

Pfizer had been searching through soil samples from around the world - isolating bacteria-fighting organisms when they stumbled on Terramycin - found effective against pneumonia, dysentery, and other infections.

Later, in 1950, Terramycin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The name Terramycin is created from the two Latin words - terra for earth and mycin for fungus - thus, earth fungus.

Terramycin was the first mass-marketed product by a pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer spent twice as much marketing Terramycin as it did on R&D for Terramycin.

The gamble paid off; Terramycin, earth fungus, made Pfizer a pharmaceutical powerhouse.