Main description:

From Aspirin to Viagra, insulin to penicillin, and vaccines to vitamin supplements, drugs have become part of our everyday lives. This staggering global industry wasn't born overnight; advancements in pharmaceutical science have been happening for a long while, over the course of decades and even centuries.
This book tells the history of ten prominent substances and how they came to be common household names. It shows how the creation of such influential drugs often began with the right person at the exactly right-or wrong!- time. The chapters tell the stories of geniuses and charlatans; scholars and amateurs; advances won through hard work or pure luck; and ultimately, the handful of resounding successes that revolutionized a global industry.
Beyond the pioneers of the most famous drugs in our culture, the book analyzes how our perspective on medical treatment has shifted over the decades. Modern standards for testing and administering substances have created a new set of advantages, setbacks, and stigmas, all of which are discussed herein.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Dedication

About the Author

Preface

1. Aspirin

Story 1.1: The curious reverend and the bark of the willow

Story 1.2: The three fathers and the two miracle drugs

Story 1.3: The industrialist and his business

Story 1.4: The great German patriot and the Great Phenol Plot

Story 1.5: The man from New Zealand and marketing magic

Story 1.6: The country doctor and medicinal gum

Concluding remarks

2. Quinine

Story 2.1: The Countess of Chinchon and the Jesuit Bark

Story 2.2: The successful charlatan and the miracle medicine

Story 2.3: The two friends and the yellow cinchona

Story 2.4: The unlucky adventurer and the alpacas

Story 2.5: The two opposing scientists and the mosquitoes with spotted wings

Concluding remarks

3. Vitamin C

Story 3.1: The famous admiral and scurvy

Story 3.2: The ship's doctor and Murphy's Law

Story 3.3: The snob and the 7,000 cannons

Story 3.4: The Norwegian hygienist and guinea pigs

Story 3.5: The Hungarian politician and Hungarian paprika

Story 3.6: The hardworking chemist and the role of wine flies

Concluding remarks

4. Insulin

Story 4.1: The bold experimenter and sweet urine

Story 4.2: The military doctor in Barbados and various diets

Story 4.3: Two diabetologists, starvation, and Elizabeth the Iconic

Story 4.4: The vivid scientist from Mauritius and the elixir of youth

Story 4.5: The aspiring amateur and the elixir of life

Story 4.6: The strong-minded scientist and her four hands

Concluding remarks

5. Penicillin

Story 5.1: The doctor with stained hands and the magic bullet

Story 5.2: The rejected Nobel Prize and saving young Hildegard

Story 5.3: The Scottish bacteriologist and his return from vacation

Story 5.4: Three Englishmen and the benefits of America

Story 5.5: Stubborn Andy and the need for meat

Story 5.6: The renowned health professional and ethical blindness

Concluding remarks

6. The Pill

Story 6.1: Madame Restell and Fifth Avenue abortions

Story 6.2: The revolutionary and birth control

Story 6.3: The controversial biologist and his controversial experiments

Story 6.4: The Catholic gynecologist and his futile hope

Story 6.5: The three brilliant chemists

Concluding remarks

7. Chlorpromazine

Story 7.1: The enlightened doctor and freeing the insane

Story 7.2: Many attempts and difficult beginnings for treatment

Story 7.3: A French thinker and his lytic cocktail

Story 7.4: A professor, his assistant, and psychiatric penicillin

Story 7.5: Psychoanalysis and the need to know foreign languages

Concluding remarks

8. Prozac

Story 8.1: Two psychiatrists, a singing cyclist and dancing patients

Story 8.2: Three chemists and three neurotransmitters

Story 8.3: The role of the medicine box

Story 8.4: How we forgot to grieve

Concluding remarks

9. Viagra

Story 9.1: The autodidact of Delft and the penis's status in history

Story 9.2: The son of a Russian vodka maker and elixirs of youth

Story 9.3: The biggest charlatan and the deepest desires of men

Story 9.4: A urologist drops his pants and what men are willing to endure

Story 9.5: The big medicine producer and the farmer's beautiful daughter

Concluding remarks

10. Vaccines

Story 10.1: A beautiful aristocrat and the Ottoman method

Story 10.2: A wise farmer, a famous doctor and how vaccination got its name

Story 10.3: A sick slave and the chain transfer of vaccines across the Atlantic

Story 10.4: Two greats and only one Nobel Prize

Story 10.5: "Sir Almost Wright" and military brains

Story 10.6: The Righteous Among the Nations and lice feeders

Story 10.7: The Somali cook and a huge victory

Story 10.8: A gastroenterologist and one of the worst hoaxes in medicine

Concluding remarks

11. Conclusion

Selected Bibliography

Index