Evaluating and Standardizing Therapeutic Agents, 1890-1950

This book treats the history of the evaluation of medicines in terms of testing for efficacy as it evolved from the late nineteenth century onwards. Starting with the use of serum as a specific treatment for diphtheria and tetanus in the 1890s, such testing procedures brought industrial and medical cultures into contact over the production and use of medicines. The result was the elaboration of standards that covered the production of medicines and their clinical use. The handling of therapeutic sera thus became a model for the evaluation and marketing of other medicines such as cardiacs or hormones in the twentieth century. Evaluating and Standardizing Therapeutic Agents, 1890-1950 helps us to understand the historical roots of certain aspects of today's pharmaceutical industry as well as modern medical practice, which have both become increasingly technically exigent, integrating high standards of quality and efficacy in every aspect of their functioning.