A Brief History of Drug Girls

This is a work that cannot be classified The reporter visited nine drug addicts - aspirin, penicillin, diazepam, digitalis, ether, quinine, pembrolizumab, ruxolitinib, and Zilebesiran. They recount their chemical structures, histories of discovery, glories and shadows. From willow bark to immunotherapy, from battlefield amputation to gene silencing with one shot every six months. Drugs are no longer the molecular formulas on the instructions, but the narrators with body temperature. Aspirin drank black tea in a cafe in Leverkusen; Penicillin wore a battlefield white coat that could not wash away the blood stains; Diazepam curled up on the bench and yawned, saying "the boundary between sleeping and waking is not clear to me." This is the oral history that medicine writes for itself. If you've ever swallowed a pill and never thought about where it came from or what you went through - this book is for you.