Now finally, let us grant that all the claims made for a new drug are true, that with it we can do this or that, as alleged. There still remains the question: do we want to do all these things? Shall we tranquilize the patient merely because the means are at hand, or alert and stimulate him, willy-nilly, when he is deluded or obsessed? Do we really want to lose control of all our mild elderly diabetics through a fistful of pills? Are we to go on creating more resistant infections through giving each new antibiotic a whirl? Shall we blindly accept the asseveration that two drugs with opposing types of …
[ Continue Reading... ]Category: Old Publications
Progress has been made with such giant strides in recent decades that one is tempted at times to bemoan the smallness of the territories still to be conquered. But for the pharmacologist at least, whatever the feeling may be in other circles, there exists a sufficient and powerful antidote for his ego in the large list of areas in which drugs are still badly needed. The things we might expect from these drugs, drugs that are not yet found or devised, are shown in Tables 3 and 4. Table 3. Drugs Are Still Needed To Provide Prophylaxis Or Cure In: common cold trichomoniasis infertility virus influenza fluke infestations threatened abortion brucellosis …
[ Continue Reading... ]During each of the past ten years the pharmaceutical industry has produced an average of approximately 400 new products. In the most recent year of record, 1957, the number is said to have been precisely 400, and 51 of these were single new chemicals. Many of the agents are produced in refined form in amounts that are absurdly small in relation to the bulk of the crude materials from which they are processed. Some typical yields of useful and familiar materials of different sorts are shown in Table 1. Add to the comparisons afforded in this table the fact that many entirely synthetic compounds are obtained through even …
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