Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences
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J Hist Med Allied Sci · Oct 2009
Historical Article"Who's winning the human race?"Cold war as pharmaceutical political strategy.
Between 1959 and 1962, Senator Estes Kefauver led a congressional investigation into the pricing practices of U. S. drug firms. ⋯ The industry argued that any effort to undermine corporate innovation by inviting, as Kefauver proposed, greater government involvement in drug development threatened the public's health and invited socialism-in the form of socialized medicine-into the domestic political economy. This strategy proved critical to the industry's efforts to build political support for itself, particularly among the medical profession, and undermine Kefauver's reform agenda.