Conclusion

Collaborative networks were well established before the Second World War in Britain as well as in France. They had arisen at the turn of the century within a small cluster of institutions and companies. ¹ Led by figures such as the Poulenc brothers, Ernest Fourneau and Edmond Blaise in France, and by Henry Wellcome and Henry Dale in Britain, and inspired by examples from abroad, particularly Germany, the community that formed these networks shared similar values, including a belief in the importance of research and of co-operative behaviour. The relationship between science and industry, which they fostered, tended to be informal rather than formal, and relied upon professional solidarity, involving mutual trust and self-regulation. Stimulated by World War One and the interrupted imports of German synthetic drugs, it began to transform not only the drug industry, leading to the expansion of research within firms, but also medicine, giving rise to novel approaches to the treatment of disease, especially chemotherapy and replacement therapy, which following Salvarsan and insulin gained ground in the inter-war period.