More and more bacteria are resistant to today’s antibiotics – the penicillin research results of Karl Hermann Spitzy are becoming increasingly important. By demonstrating the best effect of penicillin V, he laid the foundation for the rapid development of semisynthetic and synthetic antibiotics. In 1955, Spitzy founded the Antibiotics Research Unit at the I Medical University Clinic in Vienna. By 1962, he had developed penicillin high-dose therapy.
Spitzy was president of the Society of Physicians in Vienna, served on the board of the Vienna Academy of Medicine, and was a member of the International Society for Chemotherapy. He authored close to 200 educational films, organized congresses, and authored more than 400 scientific papers. He has been awarded the Theodor Körner Prize, the Billroth Medal and the Golden Medal of the Medical Association, among others. Between 1988 and 2002, clinically relevant work on antimicrobial chemotherapy, among other things, received the Karl Hermann Spitzy Prize.