Harmonizing drugs

"Harmonizing Drugs" deals with the multiple forces that have shaped medicaments in the modern medical world. Using the theme of standardisation, applied both to objects and practices, the book explores the development of twentieth-century medicine and pharmacy by looking at the production, distribution, prescription and consumption of medicaments. The aim is to better understand the contribution of industrial, administrative and clinical standardisation to the Western 'therapeutic revolution', a period when a series of 'miracle' drugs transformed not only healthcare systems but also modern society.The book examines the evolution of industrial standards and drug trials along with prescription and clinical practices, from a historical perspective. This approach takes us beyond the usual protagonists in this history - research scientists and their clinical partners - offering important contextualisation with respect to the intervention of the state, industry, medical and pharmaceutical science, as well as other actors like patients and prescribing doctors.The content of the book is based on contributions to the opening conference of the European Science Foundation Research Networking Programme 'Standard drugs and drug standards' dedicated to interdisciplinary research on the history of medicaments in 20th-century Europe.