Living Medication: Overview and Classification into Pharmaceutical Law

Abstract

This contribution summarises the knowledge of pharmaceutical drugs basedon living organisms, living drugs such as leaches, the worm Trichurissuis, 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 whichmodern science does not have appropriate interventions, alternativetherapies are welcome as a cure. Nature has many secrets and some arerevealed and discussed herein. Man, Homo sapiens, is not a singlespecies but an ecological system in itself. The complex interaction oftwo or more organisms is described by different paradigms such assymbiosis or parasitism and in this way are claimed to be helpful ordangerous. Looking more closely these paradigms provide two extremepositions of the same idea: nature is not an elaborated world but awonderful creation within which man may find another organism to helphim stay healthy. When other living creatures are used for man's healththese organisms acquire the status of a medicinal drug in most cases andmust be treated by pharmaceutical law.