From taxol to Taxol: the changing identities and ownership of an anti-cancer drug.
This paper analyzes the emergence and evolution of taxol, the world's bestselling anti-cancer drug. Over the years taxol has changed its identity, its status as property, and its association with different places (from the old-growth forests of Washington State to the government agencies of Washington, D.C., to laboratories in France). Taxol is not only a profitable pharmaceutical commodity and a substance injected into women with breast and/or ovarian cancer; it is also a natural product found in the bark of Taxus brevifolia (the Pacific yew, which is native to the North American Pacific Northwest) and a chemical substance that was discovered and brought to the point of commercial production in the public sector. We explore its role in several controversies: the destruction of old-growth forests, public participation in policy making, and the privatization of intellectual property and its effect on the price of drugs.
Walsh
Vivien
V
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, United Kingdom. vivien.walsh@umist.ac.uk
Goodman
Jordan
J
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000266:history*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000266:history; D017277:Drug Approval / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.) / Q000266:history; D010067:Ownership / Q000266:history; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000266:history*; D011050:Policy Making; D014197:Trees; D014481:United States; D016885:United States Department of Agriculture / Q000266:history; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration / Q000266:history
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D017239:Paclitaxel