The Wonder Drugs: "Magic Bullets" Against Disease

Serendipity and Science.

New medical drugs are discovered in a variety of ways. Many of the most useful drugs are found by serendipity—fortunate and unexpected discovery by accident. Scientists testing sulfonamide drugs, for example, discovered that these compounds are useful as diuretics. Other drugs take years of painstaking research. This was the case with some antibiotics, such as streptomycin. Long years of experimentation and extensive clinical trials usually precede the widespread introduction of a new drug. The medical demands of World War II accelerated the development of drugs in the 1940s.

The Sulfa Drugs.

The major killers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were infectious diseases. The groundwork to eradicate the killer diseases began in the laboratories of the dye industry rather than in medical labs. The first real breakthrough came in 1932, when scientists discovered that the red azo...

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