title: Pharmaceutical patenting and the transformation of American medical ethics.
abstract: The attitudes of physicians and drug manufacturers in the US toward patenting pharmaceuticals changed dramatically from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. Formerly, physicians and reputable manufacturers argued that pharmaceutical patents prioritized profit over the advancement of medical science. Reputable manufactures refused to patent their goods and most physicians shunned patented products. However, moving into the early twentieth century, physicians and drug manufacturers grew increasingly comfortable with the idea of pharmaceutical patents. In 1912, for example, the American Medical Association dropped the prohibition on physicians holding medical patents. Shifts in wider patenting cultures therefore transformed the ethical sensibilities of physicians.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine,College of Medicine,Florida State University,1115 West Call Street,Tallahassee,FL 32306-4300,USA. Email:joseph.gabriel@med.fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Joseph M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gabriel
mesh_terms: D000574:American Medical Association / Q000266:history; D003132:Commerce / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D010330:Patents as Topic / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations