The changing nature of animal therapeutics

Authors: Cooper BS
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 26, Issue 11, pp 265, Nov 1978
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock
Subject Terms: Animal remedies/veterinary medicines, Antibiotics, Treatment/therapy, Bacterial, Pharmacology
Article class: General Article

---

Abstract: Veterinarians who began practising before the second world war had available a vast array of drugs, including some synthetic antibacterials, but medicines were mostly of natural origin and had to be correctly treated, prepared, formulated and packaged for use. The research findings of Fleming, Florey, Selye and others who discovered the biological activity of whole new families of chemicals, changed the face of medicine seemingly within a decade or two, and this dramatic shift, from what was essentially materia medica to the new pharmacology, resulted in the rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry. Some companies just expanded from their powders and potions style of business whereas others, strong in chemical engineering, became involved in vaccine and antibiotic production through the application of fermentation technology. It was in the development of penicillin, the original collaborative project between research biochemists and large-scale manufacturers, that industry first demonstrated its essential role in the scaling-up stages of drug development…

---