Edward Mellanby approved early Medical Research Council funding for Howard Florey’s penicillin project. As the MRC secretary in 1939, he authorized initial support after Florey sought backing for research into antibacterial substances.
The MRC allocated £250 to launch the project, plus £300 annually for salaries and £100 annually for expenses over three years. Mellanby judged the proposed work interesting and potentially useful in practice, even though its medical importance was not yet established.
The Oxford team, led by Florey and including Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley, later secured major Rockefeller Foundation support as well. A common mix-up is to credit Alexander Fleming with this funding: Fleming discovered penicillin’s antibacterial action in 1928, but Florey’s group revived the research and developed it into a usable treatment. Mellanby’s approval helped make that second phase possible.