The search for medicines began when diseases existed, that is, with the emergence of the human species. Through sheer luck – chewing, boiling, and inhaling – some Neolithic beings discovered opium, echinacea, juniper, and other useful substances.

Ötzi, the Ice Man, a five-thousand-year-old hunter found frozen in the Italian Alps, was found to have been infected with intestinal parasites and had a medicinal remedy from the Bronze Age tied to his trousers: a parasitic mushroom.

Today, major pharmaceutical corporations spend billions of dollars in state-of-the-art laboratories staffed with top scientists to discover future best-selling drugs. However, despite our best efforts to develop new therapeutic formulations, fundamental elements of drug discovery remain luck, trial and error, risk, and ingenuity.

This book is a vivid and enlightening narrative of the quest for new medicines from our Neolithic ancestors to today’s professionals, and from quinine and aspirin to Viagra, Prozac, and Lipitor. Its chapters narrate with rare narrative vitality how new drugs are practically discovered, the strategies of their development, the mistakes, and the rare successes of drug hunters from many countries around the world.

Dr. Donald R. Kirsch has infused here the rich experience from his long career in drug hunting, whether searching for lifesaving molecules in the marshes of Chesapeake Bay or managing research teams in some of the largest pharmaceutical companies.