although antidote development should proceed in an orderly fashion from observation, to experimental and safety studies, to clinical trials, this sequence is not always precisely followed. the development of fomepizole as an antidote for toxic alcohol and glycol poisoning is an example of how this may not be the case. interest in the development of fomepizole was spurred in the 1960s. shortly t...

Kline had mentioned several reports suggesting that a chemical antidote was administered to the zombi victim in the graveyard at the time of his resurrection.... When I asked [Marcel] if he would be able to prepare it for us, he looked momentarily bewildered. Naturally, he replied, one would never make the poison without making the antidote. (W. Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, New York: War...

Many bacteria carry gene complexes that code for a toxin-antidote pair, e.g. colicin systems. Such gene complexes can be advantageous for its host by killing competitor bacteria while the antidote protects the host. However, in order to evolve a novel and useful toxin first a proper antidote must be evolved. We present a model of bacteria that can express and evolve such allelopathic systems. A...