The Drug Hunters

The Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines

By: Donald R. Kirsch PhD, Ogi Ogas PhD

Narrated by: James Foster

The search to find medicines is as old as disease, which is to say as old as the human race. Through serendipity - by chewing, brewing, and snorting - some Neolithic souls discovered opium, alcohol, snakeroot, juniper, frankincense, and other helpful substances. Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old hunter frozen in the Italian Alps, was found to have whipworms in his intestines and Bronze Age medicine, a worm-killing birch fungus, knotted to his leggings. Nowadays Big Pharma conglomerates spend billions of dollars on state-of-the art laboratories staffed by PhDs to discover blockbuster drugs. Yet despite our best efforts to engineer cures, luck, trial and error, risk, and ingenuity are still fundamental to medical discovery.

The Drug Hunters is a colorful, fact-filled narrative history of the search for new medicines from our Neolithic forebears to the professionals of today and from quinine and aspirin to Viagra, Prozac, and Lipitor.

©2017 Donald R. Kirsch and Ogi Ogas (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A lively and sweeping look at the history of drug discovery and how difficult, expensive, and pivotal the search has proven to be." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great story and superb performance

This is a great story of how each of the major drug classes were discovered, from aspirin and antibiotics, to antidepressants and anti psychotics. A delightful read for a scientist and a layperson alike!

Fascinating book!!!

Fascinating book with invaluable insight into things we take for granted without being overly wonk-ish. In ways both good and bad you will never look at big Pharma the same again

Very interesting and enlightening

One of those books that makes you smarter, but not necessarily more hopeful. A very interesting history of diseases and treatments, and a real insight into the pharmaceutical industry and what it takes to develop new drugs. I have read other books on the historical aspects, but this one brings it into our current day situation.

Well told explanation of issues facing pharma

We Americans have strong opinions about our healthcare system but we don't really understand it. Drug Hunters provides an exceptional first hand account of how challenging prospecting for new drugs can be. Extremely well told and so interesting I went from start to finish in one session.

Excellent Read (listen)

I found this book interesting enjoyable and educational. The author does a terrific job of taking us back in time to the beginning of man’s use of medication‘s. And shows that the process involved in discovering medication back then is connected to the processes we still have today. As a physician I found it particularly enlightening because I did not fully appreciate the discovery methods that he divulged. The story behind each discovery is presented in a way that engages the listener’s interest and curiosity, such that it’s hard to turn the recording off until the explanation of the discovery is concluded. The book is also written in a way where are you do not need to be a physician or have any medical knowledge, I think he presents a great explanation of how we get our drugs and the process involved in doing that. As far as understanding the expense of big Pharma and the reasons behind the great costs of medication, the reader gets some hint as to why that’s the case. Although there are many other reasons for the increased price having to do with FDA regulations that probably are solvable however that’s not the purpose of this book.