ABSTRACT
One of the dominant features in the development of medicine during the twentieth century has been the exponential growth in the number of effective drug treatments. The discovery of potent antibiotics during the 1940s was followed by a “therapeutic revolution” in which the burgeoning pharmaceutical industry produced a range of pharmacologically active compounds for use in a wide variety of diseases. The discovery of new drug moieties and the capability for mass production “revolutionised” the medical treatment of common conditions such as diabetes, asthma and congestive heart disease. The use of medicines has increased steadily since the 1950s and the prescription of a medicine is now one of the most common medical interventions.
