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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Advance Access published online on June 3, 2009
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrp012
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

"Who's Winning the Human Race?" Cold War as Pharmaceutical Political Strategy1

Dominique A. Tobbell*

Correspondence: * Assistant Professor, Program in the History of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus, 511 Diehl Hall, 505 Essex Street, SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455. Email: dtobbell{at}umn.edu.


  Abstract

Between 1959 and 1962, Senator Estes Kefauver led a congressional investigation into the pricing practices of U.S. drug firms. As part of its defense, the industry mobilized the rhetoric of cold war and promoted the industry as a critical national asset in the global war against communism. The industry argued that any effort to undermine corporate innovation by inviting, as Kefauver proposed, greater government involvement in drug development threatened the public's health and invited socialism—in the form of socialized medicine—into the domestic political economy. This strategy proved critical to the industry's efforts to build political support for itself, particularly among the medical profession, and undermine Kefauver's reform agenda.

Key Words: pharmaceuticals • drug industry • industry-academic relations • drug regulation • Food and Drug Administration • cold war


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