MSD - Innovations

Innovations

A 70-year track record of discovery that has greatly impacted medicine

Since the founding of its research laboratories over 70 years ago, MSD has developed more than 100 new medicines and vaccines. Our discoveries have often changed the way medicine is practiced.

The First Decades

Beginning in the 1930s, MSD research delivered an astonishing burst of innovations in vitamins, anti-infectives, and anti-inflammatories.

Developed a means of mass-producing penicillin
Helped discover and produce streptomycin, a breakthrough treatment for tuberculosis
Pioneered synthesis of the anti-inflammatory drug cortisone involving nearly 40 chemical steps, a feat of remarkable complexity at the time

The Power to Prevent Disease

The 1950s were the beginning of the Modern Age of Vaccinology and after decades of creating drugs to treat diseases, MSD saw vaccines as a means of preventing them. Discoveries flowed from our laboratories.

First available vaccine for measles (1963)
First available vaccine for mumps (1968)
First rubella vaccine in the US (1969)
Continued vaccine development, including pneumonia, meningitis, hepatitis A and hepatitis B

A New Style of Drug Discovery

The 1980s and '90s ushered in a new style of drug discovery. By studying the biochemical pathways of disease, MSD scientists determined which steps in the process could be inhibited. They also identified the molecular structure needed in a drug to produce the precise effects desired.

The first "statin" was introduced, laying the foundation for cholesterol-lowering treatment. Today, statins are among the most widely used medicines in the world and considered the standard in the management of cholesterol.
The first genetically engineered human vaccine was developed to treat hepatitis B, an infectious disease of the liver caused by a virus.
The first in a new class of medicines was introduced to treat osteoporosis and significantly reduce the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women.
One of the first protease inhibitors was introduced for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. MSD published the first study identifying protease as a potential drug target and conducted the first clinical trial to confirm the benefits of combination therapy-which has helped change AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable, chronic disease.
First in a new class of products to treat the nausea and vomiting related to cancer chemotherapy.

Today, MSD is working to build upon this tradition of innovation. Our scientists are targeting a new set of challenges and improving our innovation capabilities by harnessing new technologies.

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FIRST SUPPLIES OF PENICILLIN SAVED A YOUNG MOTHER

Sixty years ago, an important package left MSD's laboratory in Rahway, New Jersey. Inside was 5.5 grams of penicillin—half the total amount available in the United States at the time. Waiting for delivery, a young woman named Anne Miller was close to death, with fever spiking to nearly 107 degrees.

Mrs. Miller received her first injection of penicillin at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Within four hours, her temperature dropped to 99 degrees; by 4 o'clock the following morning, it was normal.

With the help of penicillin, Anne Miller walked away from death and on to another 57 years of life.

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