Toine Pieters

Broschiertes Buch

Interferon

The Science and Selling of a Miracle Drug

Beschreibung

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.

Autor

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.

Produktdetails

• Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
• Verlag: Routledge / Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 286
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. September 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm x 16mm
• Gewicht: 444g
• ISBN-13: 9780415648660
• ISBN-10: 0415648661
• Artikelnr.: 36539748

Rezensionen

'This book is compelling reading for those interested in the interferon story, including the historical background and the scientists behind the discovery. The book is a thorough and readable account that is unique for interferon and has parallels with other major discoveries.' - Samuel Baron, M.D., University of Texas Medical Branch

"I heartily recommend the book to a wide audience, not just those interested in the history and social studies of science and medicine. Pieters has successfully let interferon appear in its multiple guises, its inventions and reinventions, not only in its own right but for all those who handled it. For it is important to remember that identity formation goes both ways: as interferon changed so did its handlers. Enjoy the read." - Dr. Jordan Goodman, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

"The book is pleasant reading and flavored with many interesting and illuminating anecdotes reflecting milestones along the interferon saga" Nature Medicine

'Without doubt a stimulating book, refreshing old debates regarding thenature of biomedicine, the way we write about it, as well as pointing to new frontiers' - Medical History