The Austrian pharmaceutical company, Biochemie, was founded in Kundl in July 1946 at the site of a derelict brewery, at the suggestion of a French officer, Michel Rambaud (a chemist), who was able to obtain a small amount of Penicillium start culture from France. Contamination of the fermentation tanks was a persistent problem and in 1951, the company biologist, Ernst Brandl, attempted to solve this by adding phenoxyethanol to the tanks as an anti-bacterial disinfectant. This resulted unexpectedly in an increase in penicillin production: but, the penicillin produced was not benzylpenicillin, but phenoxymethylpenicillin. Phenoxyethanol was fermented to phenoxyacetic acid in the tanks, which was then incorporated into penicillin via biosynthesis. Importantly, Brandl realised that phenoxymethylpenicillin is not destroyed by stomach acid and can therefore be given by mouth. Phenoxymethyl penicillin was originally discovered by Eli Lilly in 1948 as part of their efforts to study penicillin precursors, but was not further exploited, and there is no evidence that Lilly understood the significance of their discovery at the time.
Biochemie is part of Sandoz.