Norman Ohler

So Sandoz made the first effective medicine because ergot kind of makes the blood vessels contract, right?

Yeah, this is all the ergot kind of research.

I mean, the whole company was just doing ergot.

So they were looking at all kinds of...

Things that Ergot could be good for just to, you know, have new products on the market.

And Ergot before, I mean, this is a company based in Switzerland, which is now Novartis, something like the fourth biggest pharmaceutical company in the world or something.

I mean, very successful company still.

They bought Sandoz and now it's Novartis, but it's kind of the same thing.

So Sanders at one point needed so much ergot that they started manufacturing it in Switzerland.

Like they went into a specific region called the Emmental, which was famous for its cheese.

And it's also famous for its bad weather.

So mold grows on rye anyhow.

So they thought this is the right area to industrialize the ergot manufacturing, like the growth of ergot.

And the farmers were like, we're always trying to

get away from the ergot.

The ergot is poisonous.

And suddenly they had to make it.

And the Swiss company paid 20 francs, I think a kilo, 20 francs a kilo.

And rye was only like seven francs a kilo.

So the farmers switched to basically producing poison.