Rethinking antibiotic research and development: World War II and the penicillin collaborative.
Policy leaders and public health experts may be overlooking effective ways to stimulate innovative antibiotic research and development. I analyzed archival resources concerning the US government's efforts to produce penicillin during World War II, which demonstrate how much science policy can differ from present approaches. By contrast to current attempts to invigorate commercial participation in antibiotic development, the effort to develop the first commercially produced antibiotic did not rely on economic enticements or the further privatization of scientific resources. Rather, this extremely successful scientific and, ultimately, commercial endeavor was rooted in government stewardship, intraindustry cooperation, and the open exchange of scientific information. For policymakers facing the problem of stimulating antibiotic research and development, the origins of the antibiotic era offer a template for effective policy solutions that concentrate primarily on scientific rather than commercial goals.
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA. Roswell.Quinn@hsc.utah.edu
Roswell
R
Quinn
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000266:history*; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history / Q000458:organization & administration; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000266:history*; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010406:Penicillins / Q000266:history*; D047789:World War II
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D010406:Penicillins