The history of the production and application of veterinary medications and biological preparations in Poland from the nineteenth century to 1945

Abstract

The year 1899 can be regarded as the beginning of the production of medications for animals in the Polish territories, for it was then that biological preparations made at the Department of Hygiene of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków were first mentioned by the press. The interwar period saw the development of not only the veterinary and bioveterinary industry, but also legislation that regulated its functioning. Although very advanced for those times, those laws were also susceptible to different interpretations and could easily be circumvented. In 1939, there were 33 Polish companies producing synthetic preparations and 6 producing serums and vaccines. One serious problem of the Polish pharmaceutical industry was the deficiency of domestic investment capital. The foreign ownership of the pharmaceutical industry amounted to 30%. Polish serums and vaccines for humans and animals fully covered the country’s needs and represented the strongest branch of the domestic pharmaceutical industry (in 1939, the Polish production of medicines met 3/4 of domestic demand). The development of industrial pharmacy in Poland was stopped by the outbreak of the Second World War. Many buildings were destroyed already at the beginning of the war in 1939. Post-war years showed that the foundations of the Polish pharmaceutical industry (including its veterinary branch) were solid. Polish pharmaceutical companies mostly recovered and sometimes even expanded their productive potential after the war.