title: [Microbiological research for the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry].
abstract: A survey is presented on the last 50 years of biotechnological R & D activities in the Institute for Drug Research, Budapest. In the 1950s and 1960s this Institute played an important role in the industry of antibiotics in Hungary, contributing to the development of manufacturing processes for streptomycin, oxytetracycline, neomycin and nystatine. In the late 1950s a microbial screening program was initiated, which led to the discovery of several new antibiotics and the isolation of microorganisms producing medically important, known antibiotics and other therapeutical agents of microbial origin from natural sources. In the 1970s and 1980s the biotechnological research group elaborated new industrial processes for the production of several antibacterial antibiotics, such as gentamycin C, sisomicin, tobramycin, apramycin, kanamycin B and mupirocin and the antitumor antibiotic daunomycin. In the last 15 years new processes have been developed for manufacturing the immunosuppressants cyclosporin A and mycophenolic acid and the hypocholesterolemic agents mevinolin and pravastatin as well as recombinant hirudin, a thrombin inhibitor. Research on steroid bioconversions has also been continued from the mid 1950s up to now. In the early 1960s manufacturing processes were developed for the anti-inflammatory prednisolone and the anabolic drug methandrostenolone. The results on microbial transformations (stereoselective reduction, hydroxylation) were utilized in the synthesis of contraceptive drugs. Since the mid 1960s several new microbial processes have been discovered for the selective side chain cleavage of natural sterols, resulting in various key intermediates for the synthesis of a wide variety of steroid drugs.
authors.affiliation: Gyógyszerkutató Intézet Kft., 1325 Budapest, Postafiók 82.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ambrus
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000639:trends; D006814:Hungary; D008829:Microbiology / Q000639:trends; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
vernacular_title: Mikrobiológiai kutatások a magyar gyógyszeripar fejlesztésére.