10 Drug Breakthroughs that Changed the Medical World

By Queuebot in Health on Sep 25, 2009 at 10:36 pm

WebMD recently consulted with experts to determine the most important drugs from throughout history. They were looking for drugs that changed the medical landscape by either treating a large number of people with a range of problems or by showing that it is possible to treat a disease.

You might be able to guess that penicillin or the smallpox vaccine are included in the list, but others such as aspirin might surprise you. The link below includes a graphic that shows the drugs that made the list and provide information on the hottest selling drugs today and the likely hot one of tomorrow. The original WebMD story discusses the rationale behind choosing each drug.

Link – via digg

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by OddNumber.

Tags: drugs, Health, important drugs

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FishBottleT
Sep 26th, 2009 at 9:39 am
It is difficult to compare such drugs because of their wide ranging differences. One may help allot of people with something that is small like a headache while others may cure a few people of a certain disease. Interesting
ECA
Sep 26th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
What is entertaining, is the Old herbals are being Dissected, to find the active ingredients that MAKE them work.
After all these years, they started REALLY looking at what worked int he past and why.

Also, that Aspirin, isnt really aspirin anymore. Finding the raw material is much better then the synthetic they are using. But if we tried to use it we would Strip the planet in 1 year of the plants that make it.

Interesting.
Reality
Sep 26th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
This is unreal.

Antiseptic is the world’s biggest medical breakthrough and it’s not even on the list.

Supposedly 75% of the population would not exist if not for penicillin…so what about antiseptic, would it be 99% or 100%?
Seventh
Sep 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
That would be because ‘antiseptic’ isn’t a drug. It’s a catch-all term for “ANY substance that inhibits the growth and reproduction of micro-organisms”

Drugs are substances you introduce INTO [or onto] the body to produce a certain effect on the body.

Antiseptics are any chemical used in any situation that help prevent micro-organisms spreading. The Dettol you spray on the kitchen counter is an antiseptic, as is the bleach you put down the toilet – but you wouldn’t usually put either INTO a patient!
TIMM
Sep 27th, 2009 at 6:42 am
The thing that is not suprising here, is that Neatorama is once again backing Big Pharma.
AlejoHausner
Sep 27th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I was not surprised to see Thorazine listed. However, there’s still controversy over it. Does it simply mask the symptoms of schizophrenia, by reducing a person’s over-all brain activity? Many patients have described taking the drug as similar to being hit by a baseball bat, in the sense that it feels oppressive, not curative.

Sure, we don’t have crazy people walking around talking to themselves, but that just means we can’t hear their quiet murmurs any more. They’re still crazy.

Alejo

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