Pharmakologische Zeitleiste

1804: Isolation of Morphine from Opium (1804)

Morphine's isolation established the field of alkaloid chemistry and proved that pure chemical compounds underlie the activity of crude plant drugs. This principle—that pharmacologically active …

1899 Drug Discovery

1899: Aspirin Commercialised by Bayer (1899)

Aspirin exemplifies the pharmaceutical optimisation of a natural product: chemical modification converted an effective but irritating compound into a tolerated drug. It also illustrates how …

1906 Mechanism Elucidation

1906: Receptor Theory of Drug Action (1906)

Receptor theory transformed pharmacology from a descriptive to a mechanistic science. The concept that drugs act by binding to specific molecular targets—and that [[term:selectivity|selectivity]] for …

1928 Drug Discovery

1928: Discovery of Penicillin (1928)

Penicillin's discovery and development created the antibiotic era, reducing mortality from bacterial infections that had been uniformly fatal. It also established the natural product screening …

1937 Safety Milestone

1937: Sulfanilamide Elixir Disaster (1937)

The Sulfanilamide Disaster directly created the modern drug safety regulatory framework. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 established the pre-market safety approval …

1943 Technology Breakthrough

1943: Industrial-Scale Penicillin Production (1943)

Industrial penicillin production established the fermentation technology and pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure that underpins the production of antibiotics, vitamins, amino acids, and eventually recombinant biologics. It …

1944 Drug Discovery

1944: Discovery of Streptomycin and First TB Drug (1944)

Streptomycin provided the first effective treatment for tuberculosis, one of history's deadliest infectious diseases. The 1948 MRC streptomycin trial established the randomised controlled trial as …

1948 Mechanism Elucidation

1948: Classification of Alpha and Beta Adrenergic Receptors (1948)

Ahlquist's receptor classification provided the theoretical basis for selective adrenergic drugs— beta-blockers, alpha-blockers, and selective beta-agonists for asthma. It demonstrated that receptor subtype [[term:selectivity|selectivity]] could …

1952 Landmark Approval

1952: Chlorpromazine and the Psychopharmacology Revolution (1952)

Chlorpromazine founded biological psychiatry and created the field of psychopharmacology. It demonstrated that severe psychiatric illness had a biological substrate amenable to pharmacological intervention, shifted …

1957 Drug Discovery

1957: Discovery of Imipramine and Antidepressant Drug Therapy (1957)

Imipramine established depression as a biologically treatable illness and founded the tricyclic antidepressant class. Its mechanism underpinned the monoamine hypothesis of depression, which— despite its …

1960 Safety Milestone

1960: Thalidomide Tragedy and Teratogenicity (1960)

Thalidomide's teratogenic catastrophe revealed that drugs can have completely different toxicological profiles across species and developmental stages, revolutionised preclinical reproductive toxicology requirements, and established that …

1962 Safety Milestone

1962: Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendment (1962)

The Kefauver-Harris Amendment established [[term:efficacy|efficacy]] as a regulatory requirement alongside safety, making the randomised controlled trial central to drug approval globally. Its framework—pre-clinical testing, IND …

1964 Drug Discovery

1964: Discovery and Development of Propranolol (1964)

Propranolol validated receptor-targeted drug design as a strategy—demonstrating that systematic application of receptor pharmacology to a defined clinical need could produce a world-changing drug. The …

1971 Mechanism Elucidation

1971: Vane Elucidates Aspirin's COX Inhibition Mechanism (1971)

Vane's discovery of aspirin's mechanism founded modern eicosanoid pharmacology and established prostaglandins as key mediators of inflammation, pain, and fever. It led directly to the …

1975 Technology Breakthrough

1975: Development of Hybridoma Technology for Monoclonal Antibodies (1975)

Hybridoma technology made it possible to produce unlimited quantities of a precisely defined antibody, transforming diagnostics and creating the largest and fastest-growing class of biopharmaceuticals. …

1976 Landmark Approval

1976: Cimetidine: First H2-Receptor Antagonist (1976)

Cimetidine was the first drug deliberately designed by rational receptor-pharmacology methodology to achieve commercial and clinical success, validating Black's approach and demonstrating that rational drug …

1981 Landmark Approval

1981: Captopril and the ACE Inhibitor Class (1981)

Captopril was the first drug designed using the structure of a target enzyme's active site— inaugurating structure-based drug design as a practical drug discovery strategy. …

1982 Technology Breakthrough

1982: First Recombinant Human Insulin (1982)

Recombinant insulin proved that genetic engineering could produce therapeutic human proteins at commercial scale with acceptable safety—founding the biotechnology pharmaceutical industry. Its approval established the …

1986 Landmark Approval

1986: Muromonab-CD3: First Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody (1986)

Muromonab-CD3's approval opened the regulatory pathway and established clinical proof-of-concept for all subsequent therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Its limitations—murine immunogenicity and cytokine release syndrome—directly drove the …

1987 Landmark Approval

1987: AZT: First Antiretroviral Drug for HIV/AIDS (1987)

AZT demonstrated that HIV replication could be pharmacologically inhibited, transforming AIDS from a uniformly fatal illness into a treatable condition—though full therapeutic transformation awaited combination …

1987 Landmark Approval

1987: Lovastatin: First Approved Statin (1987)

Lovastatin inaugurated the statin era, which produced the most robust cardiovascular mortality reduction data of any drug class. Statins demonstrated that sustained LDL lowering translates …

1988 Landmark Approval

1988: Fluoxetine (Prozac) and the SSRI Era (1988)

Fluoxetine demonstrated that SERT [[term:selectivity|selectivity]] could produce antidepressant [[term:efficacy|efficacy]] with a safety and tolerability profile that made treatment of depression practical for primary care physicians. …

1992 Landmark Approval

1992: Omeprazole and Proton Pump Inhibitors (1992)

Omeprazole established proton pump inhibition as the dominant strategy for acid suppression, achieving more profound and sustained gastric acid reduction than H2 antagonists and enabling …

1995 Landmark Approval

1995: Saquinavir: First HIV Protease Inhibitor (1995)

Saquinavir validated structure-based drug design against a viral enzyme and provided the first [[term:protease-inhibitor|protease inhibitor]] building block for HAART, which transformed HIV/AIDS from a death …

1997 Landmark Approval

1997: Rituximab: First Anti-Cancer Monoclonal Antibody (1997)

Rituximab was the first approved anti-cancer [[term:monoclonal-antibody|monoclonal antibody]], proving that Ehrlich's magic bullet concept was clinically achievable. It established CD20 as a validated oncology target, …

1998 Landmark Approval

1998: Sildenafil: Serendipitous PDE5 Discovery (1998)

Sildenafil illustrated that rigorous attention to unexpected clinical signals during trials can salvage—and dramatically redirect—a failing programme. It created the PDE5 inhibitor drug class, established …

1998 Landmark Approval

1998: Trastuzumab (Herceptin): HER2-Targeted Therapy (1998)

Trastuzumab demonstrated that an oncogenic driver gene—present in a defined patient subset— could be pharmacologically silenced with a [[term:monoclonal-antibody|monoclonal antibody]], dramatically improving outcomes in a …

2001 Landmark Approval

2001: Imatinib: Targeted Therapy Revolution (2001)

Imatinib proved the concept that a single oncogenic kinase can be pharmacologically silenced by a small molecule, converting a lethal leukaemia into a manageable chronic …

2003 Technology Breakthrough

2003: Human Genome Project Completed (2003)

Completing the human genome reference sequence provided the foundational resource for all subsequent genomic medicine: GWAS, [[term:pharmacogenomics|pharmacogenomics]], rare-disease gene discovery, and cancer genomics. It catalysed …

2004 Drug Withdrawal

2004: Rofecoxib (Vioxx) Cardiovascular Risk Withdrawal (2004)

The rofecoxib withdrawal reshaped [[term:pharmacovigilance|pharmacovigilance]] globally, prompting mandatory post-marketing commitments, expanded use of FDA's Sentinel System for real-world safety monitoring, and more stringent cardiovascular risk …

2004 Landmark Approval

2004: Bevacizumab: First Anti-Angiogenic Cancer Drug (2004)

Bevacizumab validated Judah Folkman's angiogenesis hypothesis after three decades of controversy and launched the anti-VEGF drug class. It established tumour vasculature as a legitimate therapeutic …

2006 Landmark Approval

2006: Gardasil: First Cancer Prevention Vaccine (2006)

Gardasil established that a vaccine could prevent a human malignancy by eliminating the causative infectious agent. It validated the VLP platform as safe and highly …

2011 Landmark Approval

2011: Ipilimumab: First Checkpoint Inhibitor Approved (2011)

Ipilimumab proved that releasing immunological brakes could produce durable tumour regression and long-term survival in a cancer previously resistant to all systemic therapy. It established …

2013 Landmark Approval

2013: Sofosbuvir: Hepatitis C Cure (2013)

Sofosbuvir made chronic hepatitis C—a major global cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma affecting 70 million people—curable with a short oral course in virtually all …

2013 Technology Breakthrough

2013: First CAR-T Cell Therapy Success (2013)

The 2013 CAR-T results demonstrated that genetically engineered autologous immune cells could achieve deep and durable complete remissions in patients with haematological malignancies refractory to …

2014 Landmark Approval

2014: Pembrolizumab and Nivolumab: PD-1 Era (2014)

PD-1 blockade extended checkpoint immunotherapy to a much broader range of tumour types than CTLA-4 inhibition, demonstrating that blocking immunosuppressive signals within the tumour microenvironment …

2015 Technology Breakthrough

2015: CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing in Humans Proposed (2015)

The 2015 debates crystallised [[term:crispr-drug-discovery|CRISPR]]-Cas9 as both the most powerful genome-editing tool yet available and the focal point of the most consequential bioethical deliberation in …

2017 Landmark Approval

2017: First CAR-T Approved (Kymriah) (2017)

Kymriah's approval established [[term:car-t-cell-therapy|CAR-T cell therapy]] as a commercial medical product, creating the first approved gene therapy for cancer and demonstrating that a personalised, patient-derived …

2017 Landmark Approval

2017: First Gene Therapy Approved (Luxturna) (2017)

Luxturna proved that an AAV vector could deliver a functional gene in vivo and restore meaningful physiological function in a human genetic disease, validating in …

2018 Landmark Approval

2018: First siRNA Drug Approved (Patisiran) (2018)

Patisiran validated RNAi as a therapeutic mechanism and lipid nanoparticle as a clinical delivery vehicle, establishing RNA-based therapeutics as a viable pharmacological class. It demonstrated …

2020 Technology Breakthrough

2020: mRNA Vaccines for COVID-19 (2020)

mRNA COVID-19 vaccines demonstrated that a nucleic acid platform could be designed, scaled, and authorised at population scale in under one year, achieving [[term:efficacy|efficacy]] rates …

2021 Landmark Approval

2021: Aducanumab: Controversial Alzheimer's Approval (2021)

Aducanumab's approval and subsequent withdrawal crystallised the debate over whether amyloid plaque reduction constitutes a valid [[term:surrogate-endpoint|surrogate endpoint]] for Alzheimer's clinical benefit, ultimately strengthening the …

2021 Technology Breakthrough

2021: AlphaFold Predicts Protein Structures (2021)

AlphaFold2 solved the protein structure prediction problem at proteome scale, providing free high-accuracy structural models for virtually every known protein. This transformed structure- based drug …

2022 Landmark Approval

2022: Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab (Evusheld): Long-Acting COVID Prevention (2022)

Evusheld demonstrated that long-acting [[term:monoclonal-antibody|monoclonal antibody]] combinations with Fc-extended [[term:half-life|half-life]] could provide months of prophylactic protection against respiratory viral infection, establishing a template for passive …