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PRESS RELEASE

A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR -- OR A TRIP TO THE MUSEUM -

MAKE MEDICINES EASIER TO SWALLOW

Medicines: The Inside Story Brings Medicine To Life

Next stop is the Health Museum of Cleveland, opening October 3, 1998

Info: (216) 231-5010 or www.healthmuseum.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Are tiger bones really a medicine? How does aspirin know where your body hurts and speed pain relief to the site? Will gene therapy be the treatment of the future? If you have ever wondered how medicines work inside the body, what a medicine really is or how diseases will be cured in the future, join Medicines: The Inside Story for an exciting virtual journey through the world of medicines and the wonders of the human body.

Sponsored by Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Medicines: The Inside Story features a four-year traveling museum exhibition, a high school science education program on CD-ROM, a planetarium presentation and an academic symposium. The endeavor is designed to empower people to make better, more informed decisions about their health and inspire a new generation of scientists and healthcare providers.

"Medicines: The Inside Story is a great opportunity for us to bring science to life," said Elliott Sogol, Ph.D., R.Ph., Glaxo Wellcome's director of external professional education programs and the project coordinator. "Science and medicine play an incredible role in our everyday lives, but few people actually understand how medicines work, how they are developed and what breakthroughs are on the horizon. This endeavor helps educate the public about an important topic in a fun and relevant way."

Most importantly, he says, Medicines: The Inside Story fosters students' interest in the sciences and encourages them to pursue careers in scientific and medical fields.

All Medicines programs provide information in a fun, entertaining way to appeal to audiences ranging from healthcare professionals to middle-school students and their parents. The endeavor is already under way and the exhibition has had successful visits at four major sites, including the Fernbank Museum of Natural History (Atlanta), the North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh), the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), and the California Museum of Science and Industry (Los Angeles). The next stop is the Health Museum of Cleveland, opening October 3, 1998.

"This is the kind of endeavor that happens once in a lifetime," says project director Michael R. Harris, a veteran curator on leave from the Smithsonian Institution and a registered pharmacist. "Everyone is somehow affected by medicines and can relate to wanting to improve their health. Medicines: The Inside Story provides consumers the medical information they need to know in an engaging state-of-the-art format."

Museum Exhibition Takes Visitors on Amazing Journey

At the core of Medicines: The Inside Story is a six-gallery, 3,900 square-foot traveling museum exhibition that journeys through the world of medicines and the wonders of the human body. Hands-on exhibits, multimedia interactive displays and video programs examine what medicines are, how they are discovered and developed, how they work and the ever-changing role they play in society.

Visitors travel back through time to a 1920s pharmacy stocked with actual medicines and tour working research labs from the 1920s and modern day. They explore the various healing methods used throughout the world, and see how medicines have changed five generations of American society, curing many of the diseases that once plagued our lives. They also follow a medicine through U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in the movie, "Molecule to Medicine."

Then, they journey into the future to investigate the cures of tomorrow, such as gene therapy and innovative vaccines, and learn how researchers are pursuing these breakthroughs. They'll "meet" Ashanti, a 12-year-old girl who is the first patient to successfully undergo gene replacement therapy. Visitors can even create their own drug to treat a virtual patient with a brain tumor with the interactive video game, "Make a Medicine."

The exhibition will continue to travel across the country to five museums over the next four years and will be seen by more than 2.5 million visitors. At each site, docents undergo intensive training to assist museum visitors with all aspects of the exhibition. Medicines: The Inside Story will be available on CD-ROM to allow everyone to take a virtual tour of this exciting exhibition and provide accessible reference materials for students and healthcare professionals.

Planetarium Presentation Voyares to InnerSpace

InnerSpace is a 30-minute multimedia planetarium presentation that takes viewers through the vast and mysterious universe of the human body. Audiences journey through the skin, into arteries, organs and cells, to watch the human body and medicines at work. Modern diagnostic tools fitted with cameras give viewers a sense of actually traveling through respiratory, nervous and digestive systems.

The show is produced for different levels of planetarium technology to accomodate as many venues as possible. It has been made available to more than 100 museums, planetariums, science centers and universities across the U.S. The presentation was developed in cooperation with Sky-Skan, Inc., with input from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the United States Public Health Service. The content of InnerSpace is complementary to, but independent of, the Medicines: The Inside Story museum exhibition.

Education Program Brings Science to Life in the Classroom

The education component of Medicines brings the exciting fields of pharmacy and pharmacology to life in the high school science classroom through visually engaging teaching tools and lesson plans on CD-ROM. Medicines has already distributed over 1,500 free CD-ROMs to high school science classes throughout the country and will continue to send out more. A Web site currently under construction will allow teachers and the public to access educational materials and information about the project.

The educational program was developed by a group of teachers, healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical scientists in cooperation with the Teachers' Center at the National Science Teachers Association. It includes an eight- to 10-week curriculum with 22 lesson plans that support and expand upon the content of the museum exhibition. Interdisciplinary lab projects teach students the scientific methods behind the discovery and isolation of familiar medicines like aspirin and antihistamines. The disk also contains the same virtual gallery, interactive exhibits and video programs found on the consumer CD-ROM, along with related supplemental reading to further enrich lessons.

Symposium Publication Shapes the Future of Medicines

A book containing all the papers from the symposium component of Medicines is now available from the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. The two-day Medicines: The Inside Story symposium, held March 28-29, 1996, at The Carter Center in Atlanta, provided a forum for the exchange of ideas on the past and future of medicines among academics, leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, health professionals and researchers. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop delivered the keynote address.

The book includes the presentation of 18 invited papers on the subjects highlighted in the museum exhibition. Topics are divided into four areas: "The History of Therapeutics," "Case Studies in Drug Discoveries," "Disciplines of Medicine Making" and "Medicines to Market and to Patient."

Program Partners

Glaxo Wellcome Inc., the U. S. subsidiary of the leading international pharmaceutical research company, is sponsoring Medicines: The Inside Story. Glaxo Wellcome discovers, develops and distributes innovative medicines that treat a wide range of diseases. In addition to improving patient health, the company has a long-standing commitment to strengthening health, science and math education, particularly for children in grades K- 12.

The Task Force for Child Survival and Development serves as the project' s administrative partner, overseeing Glaxo Wellcome's grant to the Medicines project. Best known for its role in spearheading immunization and other development activities related to children around the world, the Atlanta-based Task Force is administratively affiliated with The Carter Center in Atlanta.


	Fact Sheets Contacts and Feedback
	PRESS RELEASE A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR -- OR A TRIP TO THE MUSEUM - MAKE MEDICINES EASIER TO SWALLOW *Medicines: The Inside Story* Brings Medicine To Life Next stop is the Health Museum of Cleveland, opening October 3, 1998 Info: (216) 231-5010 or www.healthmuseum.org WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Are tiger bones really a medicine? How does aspirin know where your body hurts and speed pain relief to the site? Will gene therapy be the treatment of the future? If you have ever wondered how medicines work inside the body, what a medicine really is or how diseases will be cured in the future, join Medicines: The Inside Story for an exciting virtual journey through the world of medicines and the wonders of the human body. Sponsored by Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Medicines: The Inside Story features a four-year traveling museum exhibition, a high school science education program on CD-ROM, a planetarium presentation and an academic symposium. The endeavor is designed to empower people to make better, more informed decisions about their health and inspire a new generation of scientists and healthcare providers. "Medicines: The Inside Story is a great opportunity for us to bring science to life," said Elliott Sogol, Ph.D., R.Ph., Glaxo Wellcome's director of external professional education programs and the project coordinator. "Science and medicine play an incredible role in our everyday lives, but few people actually understand how medicines work, how they are developed and what breakthroughs are on the horizon. This endeavor helps educate the public about an important topic in a fun and relevant way." Most importantly, he says, Medicines: The Inside Story fosters students' interest in the sciences and encourages them to pursue careers in scientific and medical fields. All Medicines programs provide information in a fun, entertaining way to appeal to audiences ranging from healthcare professionals to middle-school students and their parents. The endeavor is already under way and the exhibition has had successful visits at four major sites, including the Fernbank Museum of Natural History (Atlanta), the North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh), the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), and the California Museum of Science and Industry (Los Angeles). The next stop is the Health Museum of Cleveland, opening October 3, 1998. "This is the kind of endeavor that happens once in a lifetime," says project director Michael R. Harris, a veteran curator on leave from the Smithsonian Institution and a registered pharmacist. "Everyone is somehow affected by medicines and can relate to wanting to improve their health. Medicines: The Inside Story provides consumers the medical information they need to know in an engaging state-of-the-art format." Museum Exhibition Takes Visitors on Amazing Journey At the core of Medicines: The Inside Story is a six-gallery, 3,900 square-foot traveling museum exhibition that journeys through the world of medicines and the wonders of the human body. Hands-on exhibits, multimedia interactive displays and video programs examine what medicines are, how they are discovered and developed, how they work and the ever-changing role they play in society. Visitors travel back through time to a 1920s pharmacy stocked with actual medicines and tour working research labs from the 1920s and modern day. They explore the various healing methods used throughout the world, and see how medicines have changed five generations of American society, curing many of the diseases that once plagued our lives. They also follow a medicine through U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in the movie, "Molecule to Medicine." Then, they journey into the future to investigate the cures of tomorrow, such as gene therapy and innovative vaccines, and learn how researchers are pursuing these breakthroughs. They'll "meet" Ashanti, a 12-year-old girl who is the first patient to successfully undergo gene replacement therapy. Visitors can even create their own drug to treat a virtual patient with a brain tumor with the interactive video game, "Make a Medicine." The exhibition will continue to travel across the country to five museums over the next four years and will be seen by more than 2.5 million visitors. At each site, docents undergo intensive training to assist museum visitors with all aspects of the exhibition. Medicines: The Inside Story will be available on CD-ROM to allow everyone to take a virtual tour of this exciting exhibition and provide accessible reference materials for students and healthcare professionals. Planetarium Presentation Voyares to InnerSpace InnerSpace is a 30-minute multimedia planetarium presentation that takes viewers through the vast and mysterious universe of the human body. Audiences journey through the skin, into arteries, organs and cells, to watch the human body and medicines at work. Modern diagnostic tools fitted with cameras give viewers a sense of actually traveling through respiratory, nervous and digestive systems. The show is produced for different levels of planetarium technology to accomodate as many venues as possible. It has been made available to more than 100 museums, planetariums, science centers and universities across the U.S. The presentation was developed in cooperation with Sky-Skan, Inc., with input from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the United States Public Health Service. The content of InnerSpace is complementary to, but independent of, the Medicines: The Inside Story museum exhibition. Education Program Brings Science to Life in the Classroom The education component of Medicines brings the exciting fields of pharmacy and pharmacology to life in the high school science classroom through visually engaging teaching tools and lesson plans on CD-ROM. Medicines has already distributed over 1,500 free CD-ROMs to high school science classes throughout the country and will continue to send out more. A Web site currently under construction will allow teachers and the public to access educational materials and information about the project. The educational program was developed by a group of teachers, healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical scientists in cooperation with the Teachers' Center at the National Science Teachers Association. It includes an eight- to 10-week curriculum with 22 lesson plans that support and expand upon the content of the museum exhibition. Interdisciplinary lab projects teach students the scientific methods behind the discovery and isolation of familiar medicines like aspirin and antihistamines. The disk also contains the same virtual gallery, interactive exhibits and video programs found on the consumer CD-ROM, along with related supplemental reading to further enrich lessons. Symposium Publication Shapes the Future of Medicines A book containing all the papers from the symposium component of Medicines is now available from the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. The two-day Medicines: The Inside Story symposium, held March 28-29, 1996, at The Carter Center in Atlanta, provided a forum for the exchange of ideas on the past and future of medicines among academics, leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, health professionals and researchers. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop delivered the keynote address. The book includes the presentation of 18 invited papers on the subjects highlighted in the museum exhibition. Topics are divided into four areas: "The History of Therapeutics," "Case Studies in Drug Discoveries," "Disciplines of Medicine Making" and "Medicines to Market and to Patient." Program Partners Glaxo Wellcome Inc., the U. S. subsidiary of the leading international pharmaceutical research company, is sponsoring Medicines: The Inside Story. Glaxo Wellcome discovers, develops and distributes innovative medicines that treat a wide range of diseases. In addition to improving patient health, the company has a long-standing commitment to strengthening health, science and math education, particularly for children in grades K- 12. The Task Force for Child Survival and Development serves as the project' s administrative partner, overseeing Glaxo Wellcome's grant to the Medicines project. Best known for its role in spearheading immunization and other development activities related to children around the world, the Atlanta-based Task Force is administratively affiliated with The Carter Center in Atlanta.