ABSTRACT
Britain's pharmaceutical industry, like its petroleum industry, is one which possesses a national comparative advantage both technologically and in the balance of overseas trade; yet it is not easy to delineate. The outlines of such an industry began to emerge in the 1930s but became far more distinct after 1948 when the National Health Service (NHS) was set up. This chapter outlines some of the principal changes that have taken place from 1851 onwards in the systems of manufacture and distribution of these medicines. It also addresses the question of how and why the transformation occurred from low- to high-technology production, from small to large scale, and from dependence on imports of advanced drugs to a high degree of self-sufficiency at home. During the century's first decade, pharmaceutical companies world-wide raced to complete the cataloguing of the entire human genome, thus identifying genes and proteins that influence the cause and progress of diseases.
