Scientific enterprise and scientists company: the commercial production of interferon by Inmunoquemia and Instituto de Oncología “Ángel H. Roffo” (1975-1980)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48160/18517072re30.289Keywords:
interferon, biomedical sciences, pharmaceutical industry, therapeutic innovationAbstract
This paper analyzes the development, production and introduction into the Argentine market of Inter-A11, an antiviral drug which contained Human Leukocitary Interferon as active ingredient. This substance was in trial stage internationally and had started to generate great expectations in the pharmaceutical market.
The purpose of this paper is to understand how this development was possible in a local context which typically showed low levels of innovative behavior by firms and a relative absence of a bond between public laboratories and the private sector. To this effect, the previous experience of the actors involved and the evolution of the joint experience are reconstructed. Firstly, there is an analysis on the track record of the Inmunoquemia firm (a small firm made up of former academics whose main objective was to develop and produce biological drugs) and, secondly, on a research group from the Instituto de Oncología “Ángel H. Roffo” (which had conducted research on interferon since mid-1960s and had elaborated a small system of production of human leukocitary interferon).
The joint experience is analyzed considering the knowledge and techniques used and created, the drug design, the clinical trials, the scaling-up and quality control. Furthermore, contextual dynamics are introduced, which conditioned this experience and made it possible.
In the first place, the paper focuses on the way in which the study field on interferon was structured internationally, which was characterized by the free access to knowledge, techniques and materials. In the second place, it deals with some of the characteristics of the local pharmaceutical sector, which had low innovation levels and was highly focused on pharma-chemical products. Finally, it analyzes the incipient creation of a scientific-technological complex, which fostered the development of long-term research based on grants and scholarships.
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