The Story of Taxol
Nature and Politics in the Pursuit of an Anti-Cancer Drug

The story of taxol; arguably the most celebrated and controversial natural product in recent years.

Jordan Goodman (Author), Vivien Walsh (Author)

9780521561235, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 March 2001

298 pages, 8 b/w illus.
23.7 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.52 kg

'… a good read, and contains much that historians of chemistry, as well as historians of technology, business and medicine, will find of use and interest.' Ambix

Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked-about and controversial natural product in recent years. It is celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity; talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports and special programmes about the molecule and its host, the Pacific yew; and controversial because during the early 1990s the drug and the tree became embroiled in a number of very sensitive political issues with wide implications for the conduct of public policy. The Story of Taxol tells this story.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Agents: 1. Cancer chemotherapy: plant knowledge and practice
Part II. Practices: 2. Act I: 1962–75
3. Act II: 1976–83
4. Act III: 1984–9
Part III. Controversies: 5. The politics of exclusivity and the business of taxol
6. The political life (and death) of Taxus Brevifolia
References and bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: Sciences, general science [YQS], Biology, life sciences [PS], Science funding & policy [PDK], Environmental medicine [MMR], History of medicine [MBX], Medicine: general issues [MB]