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Interferon was scarce and expensive until 1980, when the interferon gene was inserted into bacteria using recombinant DNA technology, allowing for mass cultivation and purification from bacterial cultures.
Nitroglycerin is used to alleviate various heart-related conditions, and it is also the chief component of dynamite (but mixed in a solid clay base to stabilize it).
In the United States, an estimated 50 million unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for viral respiratory infections.
Aspirin is the most widely used drug in the world. It has even been recognized as such by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.