1st Edition
Drugs That Changed the World How Therapeutic Agents Shaped Our Lives
Drugs are used in the diagnosis, alleviation, treatment, prevention or cure of disease. This is a book about drugs, how they came to be, and how they exert their ‘magic’. Today we have drugs to protect against infectious diseases, to alleviate aches and pains, to allow new organs to replace the old, and for brain functions to be modified. Yet, for the most part the manner by which drugs are developed and by whom remains a mystery. Drugs are more than just a pill or liquid and some have markedly altered history. The author has selected a few drugs – highlights representing milestones affecting our well-being and influencers of social change. The stories told are dramatic and include spectacular successes and dismal failures. And the people about whom these stories are told are both saints and sinners – selfless and conniving – bold and mercurial and shy and retiring loner. The drugs themselves mirror the diversity of their origin stories and the author assembles all sides of these fascinating stories.
Key Selling Features:
- Chronicles the development of some of the most significant drugs affecting human health
- Offers easy-to-follow and understandable explanations of how drugs work
- Explains the science underlying the processes of drug discovery
- Helps readers appreciate the contributions of the individuals involved in drug discovery and development
- Serves as essential reading for anyone interested in human health and public policy
Malaria and Antimalarials
The Painkiller, Aspirin
Ether, Chloroform, Cocaine, Morphine, Heroin, and Anesthesia
The Pill
Diabetes and Insulin
Smallpox and Vaccination
Vaccines to Combat Infectious Diseases
The Great Pox Syphilis and Salvarsan
Prontosil, Pyrimethamine, and Penicillin
AIDS, HIV, and Antiretrovirals
Organ Transplantation and Cyclosporine
Malaria, Madness and Chlorpromazine
Biography
Irwin W. Sherman is a Professor Emeritus, University of California at Riverside, where he carried out malaria research for more than 4 decades and published 150 scholarly papers and wrote 12 books. He graduated with honors from the City College of New York, received master’s and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University, did postdoctoral research at the Rockefeller Institute, the National Institute for Medical Research (UK), the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (Australia) and was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Biologic Institut of the Carlsberg Foundation (Denmark). He is currently a Visiting Professor at the College of Medicine, University of California at San Diego.
