Testing the Waters: Lessons from the History of Drug Research

What can we learn from the past that may be relevant to modern drug research?In this book Allan Gaw shows us how the past can illuminate the present and help us understand where we are and how we have come to be here. We will start in a world, more than two thousand years ago, long before science, but where highly disciplined minds could still formulate rigorous strategies for the evaluation of new drugs. We will move forward to see the parts played by an Emperor’s physician in Ancient Rome, a Persian philosopher and a country doctor in England. We will visit the battlefields of Europe, the laboratory benches of a German drug company and see the parts played by serendipity and innovation in the development of new drugs. In the early 20th century we will see that tragedy can be the result of inadequate testing of medicines as well as being the catalyst for change. And, we will discover how the story of one sleeping tablet changed everything.