Tag: Nobel prize

First discovered from a microbe in a Japanese soil sample, the precursor to ivermectin is indeed a natural product. However, the final antiparasitic medication, ivermectin, is not purely natural but a semisynthetic derivative, created through a specific chemical modification process.

Nobel laureates Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, along with William Lange, synthesized azathioprine in 1956 as a derivative of their earlier discovery, 6-mercaptopurine. Their work answered the question of who discovered the drug azathioprine and fundamentally changed the approach to drug development.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for the discovery of avermectin, the compound from which ivermectin is derived [1.9.4]. So, what is the natural source of ivermectin and how did this discovery change modern medicine?

In 2015, the Nobel Prize was awarded for discoveries related to avermectin and ivermectin, highlighting the drug's immense global health impact. Understanding how you make ivermectin reveals a complex, multi-stage process far beyond the scope of a home laboratory, involving specialized microbial fermentation and chemical synthesis.