For much of human history, people relied on trial and error to find cures for diseases and health conditions using natural plants and remedies, with little idea of which ingredients worked or why. Natural cures were occasionally effective, but contamination and inconsistency were common, and treatments couldn’t be produced reliably at scale.

But in the recent past, scientific advances changed this. The industrial production of chemical drugs made it possible to purify and mass-produce medicines safely and reliably, including anesthetics, painkillers, chemotherapy for cancer, and later, statins to prevent heart disease. Vaccines brought diseases like smallpox and polio under control. The “Golden Age of Antibiotics” turned once-deadly infections into treatable conditions. And biotechnology — using living organisms like yeast and bacteria to develop products — paved the way for gene therapies, engineered proteins, and monoclonal antibodies.

Today, drug development relies less on guesswork and more on prediction and design. It’s supported by advances in tools like microscopy, genetic sequencing, and other technologies that help scientists understand diseases at the level of cells and molecules. New medicines undergo careful clinical trials to test their safety and effectiveness, and are reviewed by agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration before they reach patients.

Together, these advances have reduced death rates from infectious diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other chronic illnesses, raising life expectancy further. This progress can continue if we invest in new ways to treat conditions we still can’t cure, and develop safer, more effective medicines for the ones we can. Ensuring everyone can benefit from these treatments means making them affordable and deliverable across the world.

This page brings together key data and research on medicine and biotechnology.