The Drug Revolution

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The Drug Revolution

• 1900 -1930

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Second half of the nineteenth century
Understanding of germs Pasteur Koch
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First cure based on Germ Theory

• Pasteur had found that germs cause disease by
  producing poisons of toxins in the blood steam
• Emile Behring found that some animals produced an
  anti-toxin in their blood to fight the disease.
• 1900 He found out a way to extract the
  anti-toxin from a patient who had recovered from
  diphtheria and injected it into the blood stream
  of a patient with diphtheria and cured them.
• This was the first cure using germ theory
• This was a slow process

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Existing drugs
Herbs and plants malaria and dysentry Most were
used for symptoms e.g.opium Manufactured
chemicals e.g. carbolic acid but if they were
used on patients they would kill them
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Magic bullets

• What was needed was a chemical that could kill
  germs like an anti-toxin, a magic bullet, and not
  the patient
• Koch had used a dye so that he could see the
  germs clearly on a slide and noted that the dye
  killed germs.

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• Magic bullets
• What did Ehrlich mean by magic bullets?
• What did Koch use dyes for?
• Why was the German chemical industry prepared to
  invest money in research?
• How was Salversan 606 discovered and what was it
  used for?

• Sulphonamides
• Why do you think it took so long to find the next
  magic bullet?
• Why do you think that Domagk used Prontosil, the
  second magic bullet, on his daughter?
• Why is it called a sulphonamide?
• What infectious diseases could they cure?
• Penicillin
• Why is penicillin the most important of the magic
  bullets?