Pieters Interferon

The Science and Selling of a Miracle Drug
Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-1-134-29306-3
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 284 Seiten

Reihe: Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

This innovative study charts the beginnings, history and fate of Interferon - one of modern medicine's most famous and infamous drugs. Interferon is part of the medical profession's armoury against viral infection, cancer and MS. The story of its development and use is one of survival in the face of remarkable cycles of promise and disappointment as a miracle drug. By telling this story, Toine Pieters' book provides insight into the research, manufacture, and marketing of new bio-molecules that mark modern medical science.

Pieters' closely argued book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach in seeking to trace the extraordinary voyage of interferon. Through the lens of interferon's voyage, the book explores the interaction of the broad range of actors driving medical science:

*biological and clinical researchers

*the pharmaceutical industry

*high-powered government agencies

*doctors and patients

*the media.

The book demonstrates how research on interferon led to new clinical definitions of cancer and a new rationale for therapeutic use of the drug. Interferon provides a marvellous insight into the development of one of the most controversial drugs of our time. It enhances our understanding of how medicine manufacture and marketing all played a part in pushing back the boundaries of research, from the post-penicillin era to the genetics revolution in medicine.

This study is of particular interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of History of Medicine, Pharmacology, Medical Genetics and History of Science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pieters, Toine

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

1. Interferon's Birth

Starting a British/Swiss collaboration in a London laboratory

Intimate interplay between thought and action in Room 215

Writing 'Interferon'

Isaac's Interferon Kitchen

2. Shaping a New Field of Research: Investigating Interferon(s)

Interferon going public

The Antiviral Penicillin

Misinterpretation

From the brink to revival: meeting the others

Debating Interferon's mode of operation: the specificity effect

What's in a name?

The blossoming of a new subfield

3. Interferon on Trial

A partnership originating in national interests

Establishing a collaborative programme for research on Interferon

Preparations for an early trial in volunteers

Handling production and safety problems

The Lancet report

Interferon losing its momentum

No 'magic bullet'

4. Managing Differences

Portrait of a 'gift culture'

Creating a breeding-ground for standardization

An experiment in scientific communication

Safeguarding British interests

A Finnish detour

Wrestling standards

'Having to haul down one's colours'

5. About Mice, Malignancies and Experimental Therapies

Interfering with cancer

Hoping for patients to behave like laboratory mice

Mathilde Krim's Interferon lobby

Staging a workshop on Interferon in the treatment of cancer

Attempts to put Interferon on the cancer map

6. Interferon, Audiences and Cancer

Capitalizing on a growing demand for unorthodox cancer remedies

Interferon, scientists and the media

Hailing a miracle drug

Gene dreams and the inflation of expectations

Coping with an imminent black market

7. Yet Another Twist: Marketing Interferon as a Helpful Neighbour

Beyond Interferon

A drug looking for a disease

Naturalizing Interferons as biological response modifiers and cytokines

8. Interferons in Retrospect and Prospect

Patients at work

Crafting Interferon(s)

Seeking 'magic bullets'

'Doctoring' the media

Toward genetic medicine

Patients at risk?

Über Autor(innen)

Toine Peters is senior research fellow at the Department of Metamedica of the VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, and Professor of History of Pharmacy at Groningen University, the Netherlands.