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Dutfield, Graham --- "The Pharmaceutical Industry, the Evolution of Patent Law and the Public Interest: A Brief History" [2007] ELECD 276; in Westkamp, Guido (ed), "Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Westkamp, Guido

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845427757

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: The Pharmaceutical Industry, the Evolution of Patent Law and the Public Interest: A Brief History

Author(s): Dutfield, Graham

Number of pages: 51

Extract:

7. The pharmaceutical industry, the
evolution of patent law and the public
interest: A brief history
Graham Dutfield
The manufacture of synthetic medicinal agents, artificial perfumes, sweetening
materials, antitoxines, nutritives, and photographic developers are all outgrowths of
the coal-tar industry, and in great part still remain attached to the colour works
where they originated. Of these subsidiary industries the most important is the
manufacture of synthetic medicinal preparations, which has already attained to
large proportions, and bids fair to revolutionise medical science.
Arthur G. Green, FIC, FCS, 19011

This chapter traces the historical development of the modern pharmaceutical
industry and shows how the development of this industry and of patent law
were tightly linked. As the chapter indicates, patent regulation has never been
solely an economic issue or just a technical matter. Politics and international
relations are essential elements as well. The way that the industry has helped
to shape the development of patent law requires us to consider the extent to
which the public interest has been accommodated.


1. THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS OF THE MODERN
PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
The nineteenth century experienced some major pharmacological break-
throughs, especially in the extraction and purification of the active principles
of plant-based drugs. Pharmacists and doctors were able to sell and adminis-
ter powerful alkaloid substances such as morphine, codeine, quinine and
cocaine whose purity, strength and dosage could at last be regulated (Porter
1997:333­4). There is little doubt that such advances made the use of tradi-
tional natural ...