Benethamine penicillin: a new salt with a prolonged action.

Abstract

During the past ten years a great deal of research has been directed towards finding a method of giving peni cillin that would be efficient and reliable and yet cause both patient and doctor the minimum of inconvenience. It has been found possible to increase the interval between injections by giving larger doses, by using less soluble salts, or by means of vehicles that delay absorp tion. Procaine penicillin, for instance, because of its low solubility, Will maintain bacteriostatic penicillin blood levels for as long as twenty-four hours. In practice, however, many infections require treatment for four to six days, and a preparation with an even longer duration of action would have obvious advantages, since many cases could then be treated with only one or two injections. This paper describes the first clinical trials of a new penicillin salt that has been developed with this object in view.