Streptomycin Pays

Dr. Selman A. Waksman, 60, discoverer of streptomycin and neomycin (TIME, April 4), has dreamed for years of better facilities for hunting new antibiotics and for teaching others to join in the search. Last week streptomycin and the generosity of Scientist Waksman brought the dream near reality. Rutgers University announced that Dr. Waksman had turned over his patent rights to the Rutgers Research and Endowment Foundation.

From payments already received Rutgers will build a $1,000,000 Institute of Microbiology (study of living organisms too small for the naked eye to see) on the campus at New Brunswick. Also on hand or in sight is $250,000 from the Waksman gift to be used for the institute's operating expenses. Dr. Waksman, on the Rutgers staff for more than 25 years, will be the institute's director.

Money for the institute's future will come from streptomycin, the best treatment yet discovered for tuberculosis. By all the signs, there will be plenty of money to work with. Eight pharmaceutical companies pay the foundation 2 1/2% of the price they get, now $1 or less a gram; production, steadily rising, has reached 8,000,000 grams a month, which means almost $200,000 a month income.

Royalties last year were more than $700,000, but they were no temptation to Scientist Waksman to take to the easy life. His self-effacing explanation was that he was sure the "age of antibiotics" was only beginning, and he wanted to do what he could to speed its progress. The institute would, he hoped, become a "Mecca for microbiologists."

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