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

by Jordan Goodman , Vivien Walsh

• ISBN13: 9780521032506
• ISBN10: 0521032504
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Agents

Cancer chemotherapy: plant knowledge and practice

Practices

Act I: 1962-1975

Act II: 1976-1983

Act III: 1984-1989

Controversies

The politics of exclusivity and the business of taxol

The political life (and death) of Taxus Brevifolia

References and bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.