Jordan Goodman

Cancer chemotherapy, biodiversity, public and private property: the case of the anti-cancer drug Taxol

The drug taxol has been hailed by many in the cancer community as a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. It has already been approved in use against ovarian and advanced breast cancer in many countries worldwide. Taxol has also promoted profound debates in the policy arena not, as one might expect, because of the characteristics or purposes of the drug itself, but because of other far-reaching effects. Taxol is a complex compound found in the bark of the Pacific yew tree, primarily in Oregon and Washington in the USA. The bark was first collected in 1962 and cytotoxicity demonstrated in 1964. Yet it was not until 1989 that the first results of clinical trials were reported. In the US taxol was then rushed through the Food and Drug Administrations regulatory procedures, approval being granted for use in refractory ovarian cancer in 1992. The controversies surrounding taxol surfaced in 1989 and grew substantially over the next few years. In this paper we examine two principal controversies concerning taxol, the first of which focused on apparent conflicts between the needs of environmental protection and those of cancer chemotherapy. Although the media portrayed this as a clash of interests between the environment and people with cancer, we argue that it was an attempt to increase lay participation in biomedical decision making and policy formulation. The second controversy was between health policy and the transfer of public scientific property to the corporate sector. The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb was given exclusive rights to provide taxol from Pacific yew trees under a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement signed in 1991. While this was seen to be in the US Governments (as well as the companys) interest, it provoked a public reaction questioning the terms and consequences of the transfer of publicly generated scientific knowledge to the private sector.

From taxol to taxol®: The changing identities and ownership of an anti-cancer drug

This paper analyzes the emergence and evolution of taxol, the worlds best-selling anti-cancer drug. Over the years taxol has changed its identity, its status as property, and its association with different places (from the old-growth forests of Washington State to the government agencies of Washington, D.C., tolaboratories in France). Taxol is not only a profitable pharmaceutical commodity and a substance injected into women with breast and/or ovarian cancer; it is also a natural product found in the bark of Taxus brevifolia (the Pacific yew, which is native to the North American Pacific Northwest) and a chemical substance that was discovered and brought to the point of commercial production in the public sector. We explore its role in several controversies: the destruction of old-growth forests, public participation in policy making, and the privatization of intellectual property and its effect on the price of drugs.

Gainful pursuits : the making of industrial Europe 1600-1914

Introduction: Industrial Europe in 1600. Part 1 The structural context: population, agriculture and urbanization Europe and the integration of the world economy. Part II Internal dynamics: organization of production and business technology and knowledge labour, skill and gender division of labour. Part III Industrial studies: the textile industries consumer durables cars, bicycles, clocks and watches the shipbuilding industry iron, steel and chemicals power industries. Part 4 Conclusions: industrialization and the European economy industrial Europe in 1914.

The European economy, 1750-1914 : a thematic approach

The European dimension to the modern world, Derek H. Aldcroft population, migration and labour supply, Neil L. Tranter the transformation of agriculture, Roger Price enterprise and management, Roy Church industry and technical change, Alan Lougheed transport and communications, Simon P. Ville foreign trade and economic growth, James Foreman-Peck investment and finance, P.L. Cottrell urban development, Paul M. Hohenberg.

Salt and Civilization.

Preface - PART 1 SALT AND SOCIETY - Primitivity - Antiquity - The Dark and Light Ages - The Middle Ages - Late Tradition, Early Modernity - Modernity - PART 2 SALT AND THE STATE - The Venetian Salt Administration - The French Salt Administration - The Habsburg Salt Administration - The Ottoman Salt Administration - The Indian Salt Administration under the Raj - The Chinese Salt Administration under the Late Empire and Early Republic - Notes - Select Bibliography - Index

Altopascio: A Study in Tuscan Rural Society, 1587-1784.

Acknowledgments Origins 1. The estate of Altopascio: village and villagers 2. Population 3. The economic organization 4. The economic performance, part 1, 5. The economic performance, part 11, 6. Familial organization 7. Class divisions 8. The local authority 9. The expression of grievance Conclusion Bibliography Index.