Setting the Scene

By 1900, doctors could identify germs and prevent some diseases with vaccines. But what about CURING people already infected? Enter Paul Ehrlich, working in Robert Koch's laboratory. He dreamed of a "magic bullet" — a chemical that would kill germs in the body without killing the patient. In 1909, after testing 606 different compounds, his team found one that killed the syphilis bacterium. They called it Salvarsan (Compound 606). It was the first drug to target a specific disease — the dawn of chemical medicine.