ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a deconstruction of the transaction through which prescription medicine reached its final consumer. In the late 1940s, several closely linked factors combined to create a radical change in the market for prescription drugs: namely, the introduction of the National Health Service and the introduction of newly discovered and developed drugs. The development of the deep fermentation process for producing penicillin in the United States of America (USA) during the war enabled the drug to be manufactured on a large scale after the war across the world, including in Britain. Penicillin became the single most important prescription pharmaceutical not only in Europe, but also in the USA, where at that time its sales accounted for 10 per cent of the industry' total turnover. The Sainsbury Committee report began by noting that in the pharmaceutical industry, prices, profits, research and sales promotion were all 'losely entwined' each having a 'profound influence' on the others.
