Monroe Romansky; made breakthrough in use of penicillin

WASHINGTON -- Monroe J. Romansky, who developed a form of penicillin that prolonged the drug's action, died Saturday at 95 of complications from Alzheimer's disease, his son said.

Working in the Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed General Hospital during World War II, Mr. Romansky developed a method for administering penicillin in a mixture of beeswax and peanut oil called the Romansky Formula.

At the time, penicillin was difficult to use because it was excreted from the body so quickly, according to Food and Drug Administration historian John Swann. The Romansky Formula allowed the drug to stay in the body so it could be injected just once each day.

When semisynthetic penicillin was developed in the 1950s, the need for the Romansky Formula was eliminated, Swann said.

Mr. Romansky became an associate professor at George Washington University's medical school in 1947 and was promoted to professor in 1957. He also served as director of the infectious diseases division and of the George Washington University's medical division at D.C. General Hospital.

He retired from the university in 1991.