Main description:

The use of biologics - drugs made from living organisms - has raised specific scientific, industrial, medical and legal issues. The essays contained in this collection each deal with a case study of a biologic substance, or group of biologics, and its use during the twentieth century.

Contents:

Biologics: An Introduction - Alexander von Schwerin, Heiko Stoff and Bettina Wahrig Part I: Producing Nature 1 Standardization and Clinical Use: The Introduction of the Anti-Diphtheria Serum in Lyon - Jonathan Simon 2 Biologics in the Colonies: Emile Perrot, kola Nuts and the Industrial Reordering of Pharmacy - Jean-Paul Gaudilliere 3 Standardizing the Experimental System: The Development of Corticosteroids and Its Impact on Cooperation, Property Rights and Industrial Procedures - Lea Haller Part II: The Body Politics of Biologics 4 Cultures of Subjectivity: Coca as a Biologic and the Co-construction of Deviant Subjects and Drug Efficacy, 1880-1900 - Beat Bachi 5 Vital Regulators of Efficiency: The German Concept of Wirkstoffe, 1900-1950 - Heiko Stoff 6 The Detachability of Reproductive Cells: On Body Politics in Sperm and Egg Donation - Sven Bergmann 7 Human Tissues and Organs: Standardization and 'Commodification' of the Human Body - Sophie Chauveau Part III: The Making of Contested Biologics 8 The Science of Measuring Vitamins: Quality Control and Competition in the Dutch Vitamin Industry before the Second World War - Pim Huijnen 9 The German Pharmaceutical Industry and the Standardization of Insulin before the Second World War - Ulrike Thoms 10 'There is a Frog in South America/Whose Venom is a Cure': Posion Alkaloids and Drug Discovery - Klaus Angerer Commentary: Biologics, Medicine and the Therapeutic Revolution: Understanding the History of Twentieth-Century Medicine - Christoph Gradmann