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This book consists of very brief sketches of the history of eight common drugs: morphine, procaine, aspirin, barbital, sulfanilamide, penicillin, valium, and cortisone. The stories highlight the various ways that drugs are discovered—by isolation from natural sources, as the result of serendipity, and by intentional synthesis. The steps in drug development, including assessment of biological activity, isolation (in the case of natural products), structure determination, synthesis, and commercially viable synthesis, are presented. The author emphasizes the importance of continued development after successful introduction of a drug, seeking more effective analogs with fewer adverse effects and investigating related compounds for wider biological activity.
The book stirred my interest in medicinal chemistry, but left me unsatisfied. I enjoyed the "stories". I knew that the discovery of penicillin is attributed to Fleming, but wasn't aware that Florey was responsible for its development as a "miracle" antibiotic. I found it fascinating that dye chemists collaborated with a research pathologist to evaluate sulfanilamide derivatives as potential drugs on the basis of their strong interaction with the proteins of wool and silk. But the sketches were written with a varying level of detail and some details seemed not relevant to the main topic of drug discovery. The book also did little to address this chemist's curiosity about drug structures, toxicity, and mechanisms of biological activity.
Although the introduction states that the book is appropriate for nonscientists, the author assumes knowledge of the structures and biological activity of classes of compounds. With no chemical structures, it was hard to follow the discussions of structure determination and modification. There is only brief mention of the toxicity concerns related to drug development and very little information about the biochemical mechanisms of activity. The chapter on barbital includes an informative biography of Emil Fischer, but provides little information about the development of the drug. In several instances, the names of researchers who contributed to drug development or structure determination are mentioned without describing what they contributed.
The book is an inexpensive, brief introduction to the history of drug development. It didn't take long to read, since it is only 89 pages long. I suspect that I will use some of the "tidbits" and stories from this book in courses for health science majors. Each chapter has extensive references (2–3 pages), which would allow the reader to further pursue topics of interest.
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