The Moral Economy of the Drug Company–Medical Scientist Collaboration in Interwar America

Abstract

This paper explores the exchange relationships underlying collaborations between pharmaceutical companies and preclinical (laboratory-based) researchers, in universities and similar contexts, during the interwar period. It also examines the arguments advanced to justify such collaborations in particular contexts as a way of investigating the perceived costs and benefits, especially among the academic parties in these collaborations, and the way these collaborations were regarded in the US biomedical research community.

Maurice Seevers, the stimulants and the political economy of addiction in American biomedicine

“…Seevers was no stranger to industrial collaboration. I have already mentioned his barbiturate work for Abbott under Tatum's grant, and SKF's perception that Seevers was a reliable and friendly expert on amphetamine addiction (although I have found no evidence of funding or other concrete links with that firm) (Rasmussen, 2004(Rasmussen, , 2005. After the war he did a number of studies on new drugs funded by Dow Chemical and Parke Davis.…”

Entrepreneurial Science

“…6. On the complex and sometimes conflicted relations among academic life scientists, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry, and other sponsors, from the last decades of the 19th century through the middle of the 20th century, see Galambos (1995), Lenoir (1988), Liebenau (1987), Rasmussen (2002Rasmussen ( , 2004, and Swann (1988). 7.…”

Mot de présentation

“…Elles analysent les situations dans lesquelles se nouent et s'entretiennent les formes d'assuétude : la relation thérapeutique, le rôle des proches et de l'entourage des personnes âgées, les réseaux sociaux mobilisés ou encore le poids des normes sociales. Le rôle et l'influence de l'industrie pharmaceutique et les politiques des firmes en matière d'innovation et de (re)positionnement des molécules sont peu mentionnés dans ce numéro, mais ils ont fait l'objet de plusieurs travaux (Conrad et Leiter, 2004 ;Conrad et Potter, 2000 ;Fishman, 2004 ;Lakoff, 2004 ;Rasmusen, 2004 ;Mamo et Fishman, 2001 ;Prout, 1996 ;Montagne, 1992 ;Kawachi et Wilson, 1990 ;Oudshoorn, 1990).…”