458 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



over 1,000 selected hospitals serving as depots in the United States, 

 Alaska, Peurto Rico, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands. These received 

 quotas for each month, and from this supplied their own needs and 

 those of the nearby hospitals and practitioners. The list was ex- 

 panded to include over 2,700 depot hospitals. On March 15, 1945, 

 sufficient stocks had been accumulated and production levels created, 

 and on that date penicillin was released by the War Production Board 

 for distribution through normal trade channels to the professions 

 for general use. 



The cost of penicillin, when first quoted, was $20 per vial of 100,000 

 units, and that was acknowledged to be far below actual cost. Now 

 it reaches the civilian hospital at less than 65 cents per vial, and is sup- 

 plied to the armed services at a much lower cost. No doubt the price 

 will go much lower as the present production goals are neared. 



CONCLUSION 



Today penicillin is an accepted essential in the armamentarium of 

 materia medica of the physicians in America. The search for newer 

 and better therapeutic agents in the field of antibiotics continues un- 

 ceasingly. From the research laboratories and manufacturing plants 

 of American pharmaceutical and chemical industry has come an amaz- 

 ing record of achievement which ranks with the great scientific and 

 industrial advances of all time in the history of the United States and 

 of the world. It has been an unsurpassed contribution to the healing 

 professions and to the welfare of mankind. 



