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Source:
U n k n o w n N e w s p a p e r : c . J a n . 1 9 5 1
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MEDICINE Among the Students The honor and the glory for the discovery of streptomycin (once called the "wonder of wonder drugs") had gone to Dr. Selman A. Waksman, a Rutgers University microbiologist. Streptomycin, an earth mold derivative, was no cure for all man's ills. But it performed some near miracles in fighting tularemia, certain blood and urinary tract infections, pneumonic plague and miliary tuberculosis. Rutgers University announced in 1949, five years alter the discovery of streptomycin, that Dr. Waksman had turned over $1,250,000 in patent royalties to the university for microbiology research. Then, nearly a year later, former Rutgers student Dr. Albert Schatz filed suit against Dr. Waksman. Schatz claimed that he was a codiscoverer of streptomycin and that he had been forced "through fraud and coercion" to give up his financial interest in it. Last week, Dr. Schatz and Dr. Waksman made peace out of court. Henceforth, 80 per cent of streptomycin royalties would go to Rutgers, 10 per cent (as they had previously) to Dr. Waksman, 3 per cent to Dr. Schatz, and 7 per cent to 13 other graduate students, assistants and associates who had helped discover the "wonder of wonders."
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