The Story of Taxol

Description

"Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked about, and controversial natural product in recent years: Celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity. Talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the American public was bombarded with news reports about the molecule and its host, the slow-growing Pacific yew. Controversial because the drug and the tree became embroiled in several sensitive political issues with broad public policy implications." "Taxol has revolutionized the treatment options for patients with advanced forms of breast and ovarian cancers and some types of leukemia; it shows promise for treating AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. It is the best-selling anti-cancer drug ever, with world sales of $1.2 billion in 1998 and expected to grow. Goodman and Walsh's careful study of how taxol was discovered, researched, and brought to market documents the complexities and conflicting interests in the ongoing process to find effective treatments. From a broader perspective, The Story of Taxol uses the discovery and development of taxol as a paradigm to address current issues in the history and sociology of science and medicine."--BOOK JACKET.

First Sentence

In 1960, the National Cancer Institute (hereafter NCI) and the United States Department of Agriculture (hereafter USDA) began an inter-agency programme to procure and screen plant products as potential anti-cancer agents.

Subjects