The claim: The drug, which Koch called “glyoxylide,” could cure practically “all human ills, including tuberculosis” and even cancer.
The truth: As a 1948 TIME article noted, government chemists found nothing in glyoxylide except distilled water, even though Koch used it — and little else — to treat cancer patients. The FDA kept a close eye on Koch for years but never saw him prosecuted. Koch, whom FDA attorney William W. Goodrich called “probably the smartest, brightest quack in the U.S.,” eventually fled the country for Rio de Janeiro in the late 1940s.