Malady Diagnosing

By Barry Werth

The modern pharmaceutical industry emerged from one of the great triumphs of 20thcentury science. Before the 1940s, there were medicines and companies that made them, but no one had invented a method for actively finding and developing new drugs.

Profits in medicine were disdained as suspect — immoral —and the companies were essentially manufacturers of fine chemical compounds. Since their products could do as much harm as good, integrity was key. Then university laboratories advanced a new approach: microbial screening.

Systematically harvesting large numbers of chemicals from “good bugs” and feeding them to “bad bugs”, then monitoring and improving their activity, drugmakers produced and brought to patients the first antibacterials that had been sought and developed.

The chase was on: for new diseases to treat, testing strategies, business opportunities, scientists, alliances with doctors, prestige and money… Battlefield wounds and home-front contagions drove the need for better antibiotics, vaccines and surgical products.

Drugmakers were marshalled to counter the threat of a pharmacologic arms race. By mid-century, US companies had more than matched the government’s urgency, and were racing ahead, developing new biological models to screen against. Profits began to pour in. Wall Street stood up and took notice. The companies grew spectacularly.

From “The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma”