Abstract
This contribution summarises the knowledge of pharmaceutical drugs based on living organisms, living drugs such as leaches, the worm Trichuris suis, fly larvae form Lucilia sericata or bacteria such as E. coli, their application in medicine and their legal status in many countries. As more and more patients in the world suffer from diseases to which modern science does not have appropriate interventions, alternative therapies are welcome as a cure. Nature has many secrets and some are revealed and discussed herein. Man, Homo sapiens, is not a single species but an ecological system in itself. The complex interaction of two or more organisms is described by different paradigms such as symbiosis or parasitism and in this way are claimed to be helpful or dangerous. Looking more closely these paradigms provide two extreme positions of the same idea: nature is not an elaborated world but a wonderful creation within which man may find another organism to help him stay healthy. When other living creatures are used for man’s health these organisms acquire the status of a medicinal drug in most cases and must be treated by pharmaceutical law.
This work is dedicated to Professor The Lord Lewis of Newnham on the occasion of his 83rd birthday.
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Heuer, H., Heuer, L., Saalfrank, V. (2011). Living Medication: Overview and Classification into Pharmaceutical Law. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Nature Helps.... Parasitology Research Monographs, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19382-8_15
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