40 Years of Azithromycin – A Contribution to the Valorisation of the Achievements of Croatian Scientists

Abstract

Azithromycin is a semisynthetic macrolide antibiotic that, after 40 years of success, is still considered a golden standard for a type of antibiotic called azalides. After the 1970s, as the development of a new antibiotic that would have a more powerful effect on gram-negative bacteria than erythromycin A and clarithromycin, be stable in an acid environment, and absorb well was underway, in Croatia a research team of the Zagreb pharmaceutical company PLIVA led by Dr S. Đokić synthesised a new macrolide antibiotic in 1979–81. This article offers an overview of the full contribution of PLIVA’s research team to the discovery and production of azithromycin through their own technological process. In order to better understand the climate in which PLIVA’s scientists worked, one should recall the summaries of their research, based on their contribution to world pharmaceutical heritage through the history of macrolide antibiotic research. An overview of the azithromycin research process is presented through systematic notes. The contribution of Prof. Nenad Ban to the discovery of the way azithromycin binds to ribosomes is highlighted, while a study of his earliest and a collection of his newer writings are used to refer to the anti-inflammatory effect of azithromycin and valorise new data on its use.

Keywords

• antibiotics
• azithromycin
• organic synthesis
• ribosome
• Sumamed
• technological process