The Pharma Files

In 1951, one of the most respected scientists in America called a Chicago press conference to announce a cure for cancer. He was no quack. He had represented the United States at the Nuremberg medical trials, and when he spoke, people believed him. T... more

A woman with multiple sclerosis appeared on national television and said that bee stings had let her get out of her wheelchair. The phones started ringing, and they didn't stop. This episode follows the century-old idea behind bee venom therapy — fro... more

In 1891, a young surgeon named William Coley watched a teenage patient die of sarcoma and couldn't let it go. He went looking for a man who had supposedly beaten the same disease after contracting a severe bacterial infection — and found him, cancer-... more

In 1927, a wealthy Pittsburgh socialite injured his arm on a train and was handed a bottle of certified radioactive water as a remedy. He drank it daily for three years — eventually consuming somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 bottles. By 1931, his bo... more

In 1992, a businessman published a book called Sharks Don’t Get Cancer — and overnight, a legitimate line of Harvard and MIT cancer research became the justification for a multimillion-dollar supplement industry. This episode traces how real science,... more

In the 1840s, a product called Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup became one of the best-selling medicines in America and Britain — promising exhausted parents relief from teething, colic, and fretfulness. It delivered, every time, because it contained mo... more

In the 1920s, Nobel laureate Otto Warburg observed that cancer cells metabolize glucose differently — a real finding now used in PET scans worldwide. But his leap to conclude that cancer is caused by oxygen deprivation sparked a century of misapplied... more

In the early 20th century, as tuberculosis ravaged populations and effective treatments remained out of reach, physicians turned to a seemingly simple intervention: the “milk cure.” By prescribing patients three to four quarts of milk daily alongside... more