6 Nobel Prize Winners Who Declined The Prize

4. Gerhard Domagk

1895 – 1964

Domagk was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology /Medicine “for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil” in 1939.

Domagk discovered prontosil – “the first commercially available antibiotic”. While drugs such as penicillin and other antibiotics, which were discovered few years later, and which proved to be more effective in treating bacterial infections, replaced prontosil, benefits of this drug can’t be questioned. In the time when it appeared, the number of people who died from common bacterial infections dramatically went down.

One of Domagk’s first patient was his six years old daughter Hildegard, who was successfully treated with prontosil. Hildegard accidentally stabbed herself with a unsterilized needle and got a severe infection. Her condition was so serious that one of treatment options was amputation of the arm. However, Domagk made a desperate move and gave his daughter large doses of prontisli, the drug that previously was tested only on lab animals. The medicine helped and after two days she left hospital cured.

Soon after Nobel committee announced that Domagk won the prize, Gestapo arrested him and kept him in prison for seven days. In 947 Domagk finally received the award but without money.

Domagk’s later work also contributed to the discovery of isoniazid – a drug used in the treatment of tuberculosis.