In the Otherworld Soul's homeland, bringing a new drug to market usually involved many steps.
Researchers had to identify a drug target from a vast array of possibilities, then find a compound that could act on it. The compound might come from years of research, or from an experiment that had originally been unrelated.
After completing the arduous—or exceptionally lucky—process of development, researchers had to prove through cell studies and animal testing that the drug could treat the disease without also killing the patient. Then, after a long series of necessary ethical reviews, it might enter clinical trials, moving from laboratory animals to human subjects.
Back in the lawless days, when safety awareness and resources were lacking, developers sometimes used themselves as a cheap substitute for test subjects. Of course, that wasn't recommended.
Once approved, the drug entered the familiar three phases of clinical trials. Phase One tested the drug's pharmacokinetics in humans and established a safe dosage. Phase Two made an initial assessment of its efficacy and safety, providing a basis for later trials.
In Phase Three, the trials expanded in scope. Large, double-blind, randomized controlled studies further verified the drug's efficacy and safety, and had to be conducted at multiple medical centers under doctors' strict supervision.
Only a lucky few could spend years making it through all these steps and finally win approval to manufacture and market their drug. They might become saviors to patients and benefit the community—or slip through the net and bring harm to it.
Though, over a longer span of time, all kinds of dangerous drugs were bound to slip through the net, this was still an important safeguard for people's lives.
In Norse, however, things were much simpler.
All a person had to do was claim to be a doctor, come up with