2025 - Англійська частина(АМПС)

Big business
As the 19th century progressed, advances in chemical and industrial processes enabled the manufacture of drugs to treat the ailments of the large populations crowding into new urban centres. In 1828, German chemist Friedrich Wohler synthesized an organic substance, urea, from inorganic elements. This refuted the prevailing belief that organic substances could only be produced from living organisms. It also suggested that medicines based on organic compounds could be synthesized from inorganic materials. A breakthrough moment came in 1856, when 18-year-old British chemistry student William Henry Perkin, tasked with finding a way to synthesize quinine, accidentally made the first synthetic dye, a deep purple which he called mauveine. Other synthetic dyes soon followed, fuelling a major new dyestuff and fashion industry. By the mid-19th century, it was clear that many of these dyes had medical applications and large dye-making companies, such as CIBA and Geigy in Switzerland, and Hoechst and Bayer in Germany, began to market them as pharmaceuticals, redirecting their chemical capabilities towards the production of synthesized drugs. Bayer began producing aspirin in 1899, and Hoechst launched Salvarsan, the first effective drug for syphilis, in 1910. Salvarsan marked the development of a new range of "magic bullet" targeted chemical drugs. Designed to lock on to specific disease-causing pathogens, these drugs left the rest of the body unharmed. During the 20th century, the development of synthetic insulin formulas to manage diabetes, the production of vaccines, and the manufacture of antibiotics, such as penicillin, turned pharmaceuticals into a lucrative global industry. Yet the use of drugs as a core treatment for ailments, the methods of their production, and the essence of their action, still draw on the basic approach and principles outlined by Paracelsus.