In 1935, gold drugs were reported to be effective for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

[1] Although many patients reacted positively to the drug, gold thioglucose was not uniformly effective.

In 2001, aurothioglucose was withdrawn from the Dutch market, where it had been the only injectable gold preparation available since 1943, forcing hospitals to change medication for a large number of patients to aurothiomalate.

[1] Under physiological conditions, an oxidation-reduction reaction leads to the formation of metallic gold and sulfinic acid derivative of thioglucose.

In recent research, it was found that injection of gold thioglucose induces obesity in mice.