This book is a highly readable and entertaining account of the co-evolution of the patent system and the life science industries since the mid-19th century. The pharmaceutical industries have their origins in advances in synthetic chemistry and in natural products research. Both approaches to drug discovery and business have shaped patent law, as have the lobbying activities of the firms involved and their supporters in the legal profession. In turn, patent law has impacted on the life science industries. Compared to the first edition, which told this story for the first time, the present edition focuses more on specific businesses, products and technologies, including Bayer, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, aspirin, penicillin, monoclonal antibodies and polymerase chain reaction. Another difference is that this second edition also looks into the future, addressing new areas such as systems biology, stem cell research, and synthetic biology, which promises to enable scientists to “invent” life forms from scratch.
Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 2: Seven Tales of a Patent (95 KB)
Contents:
- Science, Drugs, Money and Patents:
- Introduction
- Seven Tales of a Patent
- The Life Sciences, Business and the Patent System
- Past:
- Dyes, Drugs and Domagk
- Making Hormones
- The Antibiotics
- Present:
- Big Pharma, Small Biotech
- ‘No Patents on Life!’
- Mr Pharma Goes to Geneva
- The Story So Far
- Would We Have Got Where We are Today Without Patents?
- Future:
- The Future of Patents and the Life Science Industries
Readership: The educated general public; students and academics in law (especially intellectual property law), business studies (especially those interested in pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses), and various history sub-disciplines (history and philosophy of science, history of medicine, business history); biologists, life scientists, and biotechnologists in public and private sectors; medical practitioners interested in the legal, commercial and social science aspects of their work.
“Professor Dutfield's book well deserves an updated edition. Everybody who knows about intellectual property rights — except those with a vested interest in keeping them as they are — accepts that the system is a mess, and is not doing what it is meant to. He shows with clarity and in detail how this has come about in the life sciences through legislation shaped by interests more than by any vision of the public good. Keynes believed that ‘soon or late, it is ideas rather than vested interests, that are dangerous for good or ill’. Intellecual Property Rights and the Life Science Industries is a valuable reinforcement to the ‘ideas’ side in this particular battle.”
Professor William Kingston
Trinity College Dublin
“No one studying or thinking about patent issues and the biological sciences can afford not to read Dutifield's ridiculously erudite and comprehensive look at the subject.”
Professor Paul J Herald
Allen Post Professor
University of Georgia
“This second edition is a complete rewrite, much influenced by his increased interest in what it means to invent in the life sciences and by how patent law is shaped by ‘contestable assumptions’ concerning the boundaries between the natural- and the human-made. The book is an extremely readable and scholarly analysis … of key importance for those who want to understand the institutions that make the system tick.”
David Wield
Director
ESRC Innogen Centre, University of Edinburgh
“A fascinating read. Dutfield is a great intellectual all-rounder who effortlessly combines history, natural science, law, ethics, political analysis and business studies.”
Doris Schroeder
Director
Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire
“In this perceptive and politically literate study, Dutfield carefully explains how modern biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have lobbied for a patent policy that may sometimes promote progress, but that also exacerbates economic inequalities and panders to the anxieties of the ‘worried well’”
Donna Dickenson
Author of Body Shopping
Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics & Humanities
University of London
“With sustained verve in this extended second edition, Dutfield is convincing in his claim that, whilst the role of patent systems in creating or directing the big breakthrough scientific or technical advances might remain problematic, the life science industries themselves were influenced strongly both by national patent regimes and by the international system globally.”
Ian Inkster
Research Professor of International History
Nottingham Trent University
“With zest and enthusiasm Graham Dutfield has shown that a topic thought dry and specialist is neither. His broad-ranging approach brings out the importance and interest of intellectual property rights to a wide range of scholars.”
Robert Bud
Author of Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy
Science Museum, London
“A truly elegant, accessible and enthralling description of the development of the life science industry from the 19th century to the present. This fascinating book should be read by everyone interested in the intersection of science, law and politics.”
Sigrid Sterckx
Bioethics Institute Ghent
“An exceptionally readable and interesting account of the simultaneous growth of intellectual property rights, biological sciences, and the life science industries.”
Joshua Sarnoff
Washington College of Law, American University
“A lively and informative account. Dutfield addresses both sides of the equation — the science and technology, as well as the legal framework associated with drug development. He also reflects on current trends in science and technology and the stark choices regarding intellectual property that concern us all, but especially the scientists who have the power to influence government policy and shape the future.”
Viviane Quirke
Centre for Health, Medicine & Society: Past & Present
Oxford Brookes University
“A wonderfully informative, insightful, and very readable chronicle. Refreshingly candid, witty, and balanced, I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a broad-based, global perspective on how we got to where we are in life sciences patenting and where we are likely to be headed in the rapidly approaching future.”
Professor Margo A Bagley
University of Virginia School of Law
