Almost all histories of penicillin have but one plot : the dramatic, last minute come-from-behind victory of the little guy, HIGH TECH MAN, over the vast evil forces of Nature and fungi spores.
In pointed fact, the technical problems of producing life-saving penicillin was solved very quickly, basically done by one or two individuals with remarkably low level technology, by the Fall of 1941.
But even the most affluent members of the world could not reliably access life-saving penicillin for another five years and it still remains important to discover why.