Correct! Anthracyclines were originally discovered in Italy approximately 70 years ago by a company named Farmitalia.
A member of the team went on expedition to Castel del Monte, in Puglia, in which soil he identified a strain of Streptomyces producing a substance with antitumoral proprieties: he called it “Daunomycin”, from the tribes of “Daunii” that used to live in Puglia during the Bronze Age.
The first trials with daunomycin were conducted at the NCI of Milan and at MSKCC, describing the first clinical responses. Meanwhile, the team at Farmitalia kept working on the molecule, developing an even more potent analogue.
They called it “Adriamycin”, from the Adriatic Sea that bathes the shores of Puglia, and that can be easily reached from Castel del Monte, where everything started.
More info here:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…
Where does the name of Adriamycin (aka Doxorubicin) come from?