A Deadly Mistake That Led to Safer Medicine | Elixir Sulfanilamide
In the 1930s, a mistake that cost over a hundred lives helped usher in a new era of safer medicine. We're conducting a survey of our viewers! If you have time, please give us feedback: https://www...
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The history of medicine is full of some huge triumphs, but also some pretty terrible mistakes. Like how, in the 1930s, a company out to make a quick buck took a safe, effective drug and managed to make it a killer. But surrounding that tragedy are some pretty fascinating stories: how a dye became a wonder drug, how the US Food and Drug Administration became what it is today, and how one scientist walked home with a Nobel Prize. The drug in question is called elixir sulfanilamide, and it was briefly manufactured and sold by the S. E. Massengill Company of Tennessee in 1937. But before this deadly elixir was concocted, sulfanilamide had a good rep as an effective drug all on its own. Sulfanilamide is an antibiotic, so it’s used to fight bacterial infe...
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The history of medicine is full of some huge triumphs, but also some pretty terrible mistakes. Like how, in the 1930s, a company out to make a quick buck took a safe, effective drug and managed to make it a killer. But surrounding that tragedy are some pretty fascinating stories: how a dye became a wonder drug, how the US Food and Drug Administration became what it is today, and how one scientist walked home with a Nobel Prize. The drug in question is called elixir sulfanilamide, and it was briefly manufactured and sold by the S. E. Massengill Company of Tennessee in 1937. But before this deadly elixir was concocted, sulfanilamide had a good rep as an effective drug all on its own. Sulfanilamide is an antibiotic, so it’s used to fight bacterial infe...
