In Short:

Examines the role of the World War II medical reseach effort in helping create the modern biomedical innovation system.

Abstract

During World War II, the U.S. Committee on Medical Research (CMR) undertook an integrated, cross-sectoral effort to develop medical science and technology for war, representing the U.S. government’s  first substantial investment in medical research. Although it had mixed results during
the war, using data on all CMR research contracts we show that the new scientific subjects it targeted experienced differentially rapid growth after the war, as did postwar drug development and coverage in medical textbooks in treated areas. These changes coincided with growing interdependence between science and technology and between  firms, universities, and the federal government, indicating biomedicine’s increasingly systemic character.

About the author

Bhaven N. Sampat

Professor, School of Government and Policy and Carey Business School

Bhaven N. Sampat is an economist focusing on the economics, law, history, and political economy of science and technology.