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The Swiss Pharmaceutical Industry: The Impact of Industrial Property Rights and Trust in the Laboratory, 1907–1939

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Determinants in the Evolution of the European Chemical Industry, 1900–1939

Part of the book series: Chemists and Chemistry ((CACH,volume 16))

Abstract

The rise of the health products and modern pharmaceutical industry based originally on coal-tar derivatives may be dated to the end of the 19th century. At that time, new medicaments were created out of a symbiosis of science and, the mainly organic, chemical industry which — due to the mechanisms of competition — were subject to ongoing changes and needs for improvement. The industrial historian Wolfgang Wimmer summarized his study on the “Gesundheitswesen and die Innovationen der Pharma-Industrie in Deutschland” [The Health Service and Innovations of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Germany] between 1880 and 1935 with a statement that harks back to the advertising slogans of the very companies he was writing about: “We almost always have something new available.”1 This not only refers to the rather hectic dynamics of innovation that are observed within such companies but also to an attitude that demonstrates the awareness of and tendency towards progress for the entire era. Representatives of the pharmaceutical industry were soon able to point with some pride to the fact that they were now fortunate enough to speak of “some diseases which a few decades ago were dangerous epidemics ... in the past tense.”2

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forschungsstelle für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 64, CH-8001, Zurich, Switzerland

    Jakob Tanner

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  1. Jakob Tanner
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sidney M. Edelstein Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Anthony S. Travis

  2. University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Harm G. Schröter

  3. Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Ernst Homburg

  4. Science Museum, London, UK

    Peter J. T. Morris

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Tanner, J. (1998). The Swiss Pharmaceutical Industry: The Impact of Industrial Property Rights and Trust in the Laboratory, 1907–1939. In: Travis, A.S., Schröter, H.G., Homburg, E., Morris, P.J.T. (eds) Determinants in the Evolution of the European Chemical Industry, 1900–1939. Chemists and Chemistry, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1233-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1233-0_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4972-8

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