Show Notes
A pharmacist’s bottle of sulfanilamide dissolved patients with a diethylene glycol solvent - who is responsible when no law requires testing?
The Solvent Diethylene Glycol Dissolved Patients and Killed a Hundred
In this episode, we trace a sequence of events from ancient antidotes to a 1937 pharmaceutical disaster to ask how societies decided who should guarantee a medicine’s safety. How did a legitimate antibiotic become a lethal elixir, and what gaps allowed it to reach pharmacy shelves?
Person: Mithridates Event: Use and spread of Mithridatium/theriac Date: 1937 Location: United States Company: S.E. Massengill Company
- Mithridates ingested small doses of poisons and compiled Mithridatium, a multi-ingredient antidote later known as theriac. - Theriac evolved into a widely sold medicine across Rome, Islamic medicine, and medieval Europe, appearing in the Leechbook of Bald. - Market incentives led merchants to adulterate or cut corners on medicines, creating invisible risks for patients. - Medieval and early modern authorities (Hisba, Frederick II, Florence, Spain, London) instituted standards and pharmacopoeias to inspect drug composition and makers. - In autumn 1937 S.E. Massengill bottled “Elixir Sulfanilamide” using diethylene glycol as a solvent; no law required safety testing and over a hundred deaths from kidney failure followed.
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