[The development of adrenal cortical hormones into drugs].

Abstract

The interplay of factors contributing to the development of adrenal cortical hormones into drugs is reviewed. Clinical research performed during long periods by the physicians T. Addison and P.S. Hench in a nearly obsessional way stimulated basic research in physiology and biochemistry of the adrenal glands. From about 1900 increasing public interest in the "new hormones"coincided with expansion in research and development in academic and industrial settings. Pharmaceutical companies developed skill by production of much demanded organ-extracts, both effective ones as insulin and preparations of questionable clinical value. In 1949 the powerful anti-inflammatory effect of the cortical hormone, cortisone was discovered. As the supply of that hormone was scanty, it had temporarily to be substituted by the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from animal hypophyses. Thereafter development accelerated through the combined effect of many years' painstaking research on the adrenal cortical hormones, technological breakthroughs, a climate positive for bold clinical experimentation and vigorous competition among mainly American pharmaceutical companies. Within a decade prednisone, the successor of cortisone, was launched, its clinical use established and large-scale inexpensive production instituted.