Economic report on antibiotics manufacture.

  • United States Federal Trade Commission
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Economic report on antibiotics manufacture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/380 (page 1)
    INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY Introduction Origin and scope of study Because of the great public interest in the availability of medicines at reasonable prices, and the substantial share which antibiotics are taking in consumer expenditures for drugs and medicines, the Federal Trade Commission on July 22, 1953, adopted a resolution authoriz- ing and directing an inquiry into the organization and operation of the antibiotics branch of the ethical drug industry. Steps were taken to initiate the study, but pressure of other in- vestigations prevented the assignment of sufficient personnel to carry it beyond the planning stage until 1956, when the staff of the Bureau of Economics could return to this problem. An amended resolution was adopted by the Commission on July 13, 1956, to renew the authorization for the inquiry. The text of the amended resolution follows: FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION AMENDED RESOLUTION Report on Antibiotic Drug Industry Whereas the commercial manufacture of antibiotic substances in the United States has within less than a decade, developed into one of the major branches of the ethical drug industry, and has come to be an important source of newly discovered food and feed supplements; and Whereas the general public contributed largely to the establishment of an antibiotics industry in the United States through Federal Government promotion of research by which methods of producing antibiotics were developed, and through Government incentive to stimulate commercial production of penicillin ; and Whereas the industry is important to the public health and welfare, since antibiotic substances are more potent against a variety of diseases than any drugs previously known, and other substances produced by antibiotic manu- facturers have unique value as food and feed supplements in human and animal] nutrition, while new potentialities are still being revealed ; and Whereas there is a broad public interest in the availability at reasonable prices of the antibiotic drugs, as well as in continuing research and continuing incentives for the discovery and development of new uses and new antibiotics under the private enterprise system; and Whereas it appears to the Commission that, for the reasons stated herein, and for the purposes set forth in Section 6 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, an investigation of the antibioties industry by the Federal Trade Com- mission would be in the public interest: Now, therefore, be it