Shifting Boundaries between Industry and Science: The Role of the WHO in Contraceptive R&D

Abstract

When we talk about drug development we are inclined to think of the pharmaceutical industry, which has played a dominant role in research and development of drugs. Most modern prescription drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies in the Western industrialized world1 (Djerassi 1970, p. 943). However, industry is not the only actor in drug development. Innovation in this field requires close collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, university laboratories and clinics. Networks of these types first emerged in the 1920s and 1930s: alliances with academic scientists and the medical profession were crucial in the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe as well as in the USA (Liebenau 1987; Swann 1988; Oudshoorn 1993). Traditionally, the demarcations between industry and science have usually been portrayed in terms of a simple duality: ‘manufacturing’ is the domain of industry, whereas university laboratories mainly perform ‘fundamental research.’ However, in practice these boundaries between industry and science have become blurred. Major pharmaceutical firms in Europe and the United States run sizeable R&D programs that include fundamental research. This is in line with constructivist approaches in science and technology studies that suggest that the boundaries between entities such as industry and science are negotiable and historically contingent. The role of industry is thus not self-evident. Löwy’s suggestion that ‘the precise role of the industry may become visible only when something goes wrong’ provides a very challenging perspective from which to look at the history of drug development, particularly those periods in which networks between industry and science are unstable (Löwy 1994).KeywordsMale FertilityResearch TrainingHuman ReproductionPharmaceutical FirmPopulation CouncilThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.