in 1970, new strains of fungi were isolated from soil samples taken from norway and from wisconsin in the us by employees of sandoz (now novartis) in basel, switzerland. both strains produced a family of natural products called cyclosporins. two related components that had antifungal activity were isolated from extracts from these fungi. the norwegian strain, "tolypocladium inflatum gams", was later used for the large scale fermentation of ciclosporin.