Argyrol

Argyrol is the trade name for an antiseptic consisting of compounded solutions at varying strengths of mild silver protein. Argyrol is synonymous with the chemical mild silver protein. It is manufactured in the chemical industry to pharmaceutical grade only, using denatured pharmaceutical-grade protein for ophthalmic application and elemental silver, to produce the silver protein molecule. While employed with Mulford & Co. (which became Merck & Co.), the American physician Dr. Albert Coombs Barnes recruited chemist Dr. Hermann Hille in Germany. They returned to the United States and left Mulford together to launch Argyrol, developed and commercialized by Barnes as a Prevention Technology for use on mucous membranes to resolve local infections in mucous-membrane-lined organs, most widely publicized for its value to resolve gonorrhea infections and to prevent gonorrheal blindness and other pathogenic infections to the eyes of newborn infants.

Argyrol was first introduced as commercial medicine in 1901 by the Barnes and Hille, Chemists company. Argyrol remains a registered trademark since Barnes's USPTO registration issued in 1902. In April 1907, Barnes bought out Hille and organized the A.C. Barnes Company to continue the manufacture and global sales of Argyrol from three headquarters located in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. Argyrol was never patented because Barnes strategized perpetuation of Argyrol exclusivity through his trademark of Argyrol as the colloidal silver protein for antiseptic use to mucous membranes.

By World War II, Argyrol post-exposure male hygiene was mandatory in the U.S. and Allied Military VD Prevention Technology for sexual hygiene. With the advent of antibiotics, prevention was outdistanced by promise of cure by simple injection. Thereafter, Argyrol Anti-Infective became infrequently prescribed because Argyrol 10% Stabilized Solution was available over-the-counter in pharmaceutical distribution, while prescription permitted compounding pharmacists to provide designer solutions of mild silver protein. Niched in ophthalmics, Argyrol dominated topical antimicrobials for the first half of the 20th century. With the enormous profits from the sale of the drug for a wide range of indications in human and veterinary medicine, Barnes accumulated a large collection of art, mainly French Impressionist works, which today form the holdings of the Barnes Foundation, an educational art institution established by his will. The paintings were valued in March 2010, at $25 billion.

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