How to produce ‘marketable and profitable results for the company’: from viral interference to Roferon A

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (3):30 (2019)
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Abstract

This paper looks at the commodification of interferon, marketed by Hoffmann La Roche as Roferon A in 1986, as a case study that helps us understand the role of pharmaceutical industry in cancer research, the impact of molecular biology on cancer therapy, and the relationships between biotech start-ups and established pharmaceutical firms. Drawing extensively on materials from the Roche company archives, the paper traces interferon’s trajectory from observed phenomenon to product. Roche embraced molecular biology in the late 1960s to prepare for the moment when the patents on some of its bestselling drugs were going to expire. The company funded two basic science institutes to gain direct access to talents and scientific leads. These investments, I argue, were crucial for Roche’s success with recombinant interferon, along with more mundane, technical and regulatory know-how held at Roche’s Nutley base. The paper analyses in some detail the development process following the initial success of cloning the interferon gene in collaboration with Genentech. It looks at the factors necessary to scale up the production sufficiently for clinical trials. Using Alfred Chandler’s concept of ‘organizational capabilities’, I argue that the process is better described as ‘mobilisation’ than as ‘translation’.

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References found in this work

A History of Molecular Biology.Michel Morange & Matthew Cobb - 1999 - Journal of the History of Biology 32 (3):568-570.
Managing the future: The Special Virus Leukemia Program and the acceleration of biomedical research.Robin Wolfe Scheffler - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48 (PB):231-249.

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