The story

Sami Said, an Egyptian-born physician, and the Swedish chemist Viktor Mutt at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm isolated VIP from pig intestine in 1970, while searching for substances that open blood vessels. It was soon found throughout the nervous system and in immune cells. In the 2000s Mario Delgado and Doina Ganea mapped its strong anti-inflammatory and tolerance-building role. In 2013 the American physician Ritchie Shoemaker used nasal VIP, 50 mcg four times a day, to restore balance in people with chronic inflammatory illness after exposure to water-damaged, mouldy buildings.