Page 134 - Encyclopedia of Chemical Compounds 3 Vols

AMOXICILLIN

Interesting Facts

• The original U.S. patent on drug. This fact accounts
amoxicillin granted to for the more than three
Beecham Laboratories in dozen trade names under
1965 has expired, allowing which it is sold.
other pharmaceutical
manufacturers to make the

discovered ways of changing the chemical structure of peni-
cillin to create semisynthetic versions. The new antibiotics
they created were more effective than penicillin against a
wider range of bacteria, often with fewer side-effects. Amox-
icillin was discovered by researchers at the Beecham pharma-
ceutical laboratories in 1962 and marketed about a decade
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later under the trade name of Amoxil . The drug is now
available under a number of trade names, including
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Ò
Ò
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Larotid , Trimox , Wymox , Polymox , and Augmentin .
HOW IT IS MADE
The preparation of amoxicillin involves a complex series
of reactions that begins with penicillin produced by molds or
other microorganisms. A variety of chemical reagents is then
used to replace one hydrogen atom in the penicillin molecule
by the CH(NH 2 )C 6 H 4 OH group that converts penicillin into
amoxicillin.

COMMON USES AND POTENTIAL HAZARDS
Amoxicillin is available only by prescription and is used
against a variety of disease-causing bacteria, such as the
cocci bacteria listed above, as well as Bordetella pertussis,
the bacterium that causes whooping cough, Salmonella typhi,
the bacterium that causes typhoid, and Vibrio cholerae, the
bacterium that causes cholera.
The safety of amoxicillin has been extensively tested in
trials with both experimental animals and humans. It poses
no risk to the vast majority of people. As with all drugs,

CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS 83