Networks of Innovation: Vaccine Development at Merck, Sharp and Dohme, and Mulford, 1895-1995 [Paperback]

Louis Galambos (Author), Jane Eliot Sewell (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 1997 | ISBN-10: 052162620X | ISBN-13: 978-0521626200

Networks of Innovation offers a historical perspective on the manner in which private sector organizations have acquired, sustained, and periodically lost the ability to develop, manufacture, and market new serum antitoxins and vaccines. The primary focus is on the H. K. Mulford Company, on Sharp & Dohme, which acquired Mulford in 1929, and on Merck & Co., Inc., which merged with Sharp & Dohme in 1953. By surveying a century of innovation in biologicals, the authors show how the activities of these three commercial enterprises were related to a series of complex, evolving networks of scientific, governmental, and medical institutions in the United States and abroad.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this is a most impressive work....superb at showing the requisites for successful vaccine innovation. It provides outside observers rare insight into decision making processes at a leading pharmaceutical firm." Marvin Fischbaum, H-Net Reviews

"Galambos and Sewell's well-documented book is a valuable and unusual contribution to the history of specialized pharmaceutical endeavor in America, with emphasis on the networking required on the long road leading to each new vaccine." Glenn Sonnedecker, American Historical Review

"...best described by its subtitile because of the narrow focus on the chronological history of Merck's vaccine unit." Book Reviews

"It is beautifully written." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Rigorously researched and crisply written, Networks of Innovation....makes a strong case for science-based firms' building and sustaining organizational capabilities to achieve technological innovation as well as to accomodate shifting competitive and regulatory environments." David B. Sicilia, The Journal of American History

"Networks of Innovation deserves a careful and thoughtful reading by historians of technology because it shows how it is possible to analyze effectively the role of individuals in the process of technological change without losing the insights and rigor that come from sociological and economic theory." W. Bernard Carlson, Technology and Culture

Book Description

Networks of Innovation offers an historical perspective on the manner in which private sector organizations have acquired, sustained, and periodically lost the ability to develop, manufacture, and market new serum antitoxins and vaccines. The primary focus is on the H. K. Mulford Company, on Sharp & Dohme, which acquired Mulford in 1929, and upon Merck & Co., Inc., which merged with Sharp & Dohme in 1953. By surveying a century of innovation in biologicals, the authors show how the activities of these three commercial enterprises were related to a series of complex, evolving networks of scientific, governmental, and medical institutions in the United States and abroad.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052162620X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521626200
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge is key, January 18, 2009

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Angela K. Hall "healthy mom" (fort worth,tx) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Networks of Innovation: Vaccine Development at Merck, Sharp and Dohme, and Mulford, 1895-1995 (Paperback)

This book does a good job of explaining how the Big-Pharma companies came about. I bought this book for resarch into the unnessary use of vaccinations.