[Magic bullets, chemical gagging, controlled risks? On the research of the network "Pharmaceuticals in the 20th century" of the German Research Foundation (DFG)].
Therapeutic substances, their development, testing, application and effects, have in recent years become a central topic of the history of medicine, history of science, and science and technology studies. This paper provides an overview of the literature on this topic through the four-fold perspective of individual substances, industry, patients, and regulation. It introduces the recently established, DFG-funded research network "Pharmaceuticals in the 20th Century" and sketches current methodological approaches to the history of therapeutic substances. At present it appears to be particularly promising to adopt an approach which uses substances or groups of substances as a heuristic device for exploring their complex networks and interdependencies.
Institüt für Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin, albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Deutschland.
Viola
V
Balz
Michael
M
Bürgi
Nicholas
N
Eschenbruch
Marion
M
Hulverscheidt
D000818:Animals; D017277:Drug Approval / Q000266:history*; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000266:history*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
Magic Bullets, chemische Knebel, beherrschte Risiken? Zum Arbeitsfeld des DFG-Forschungsnetzwerks "Arzneistoffe im 20. Jahrhundert".