Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:13:43.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Technology Transfer in the Interwar U.S. Pharmaceutical Sector: The Case of E. Merck of Darmstadt and Merck & Co., Rahway, New Jersey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2019

ANDREW GODLEY ,
MARRISA JOSEPH  and
DAVID LESLIE-HUGHES
ANDREW GODLEY
Affiliation:
Andrew Godley is Head of the Department of Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour at the Henley Business School and Professor of Management and Business History and Academic Director of the Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship, at the University of Reading. E-mail: [email protected]
MARRISA JOSEPH
Affiliation:
Marrisa Joseph isLecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Henley Business School, University of Reading. E-mail: [email protected]
DAVID LESLIE-HUGHES
Affiliation:
David Leslie-Hughes is an independent scholar. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is a case study of the U.S. pharmaceutical producer, Merck & Co. By 1940 this was one of the leading pharmaceutical producers in the United States, and the company went on to become one of the global industry leaders after World War II. It was founded in 1891 as the U.S. subsidiary of a much larger German pharmaceutical company, E. Merck of Darmstadt. The existing understanding of Merck & Co.’s history emphasizes how it was reacquired by the American branch of the Merck family after wartime sequestration, and from then onward it pursued a path of development separate from its former parent. This article revisits that history of the company and shows how the two Mercks began to cooperate and share technology and manufacturing know-how during the 1930s, something that was particularly to the advantage of Merck & Co.

Type
Article
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 613 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Abbott Laboratories. The Abbott Almanac: One Hundred Years of Commitment to Quality Health Care, Elmsford, NY: Benjamin, 1988.Google Scholar
Bayer, . Fifty Years, 1888–1938, of Bayer Remedies. Leverkusen: Bayer/IGF, 1938.Google Scholar
Beer, J. J. The Emergence of the German Dye Industry. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Bernschneider-Reif, Sabine, Huber, Walter, and Possehl, Ingunn. ‘ Was der Mensch thun kann…’ The History of Merck—The World’s Oldest Pharmaceutical Chemical Company. Darmstadt: Merck KGaA, 2002.Google Scholar
Carlisle, Robert D. A Century of Caring: The Upjohn Story . Elmsford, NY: Benjamin, 1987.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. D. Visible Hand. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1977.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. D. Scale and Scope. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1990.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. D. Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, Roy, and Tansey, E. M.. Burroughs Wellcome: Knowledge, Trust, Profit and the Transformation of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, 1880–1940. Lancaster, UK: Crucible, 2007.Google Scholar
Davies, Wyndham. The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Personal Study. Oxford: Pergamon, 1967.Google Scholar
Deeson, Tony. Parke, Davis in Britain, the First Hundred Years . Eastleigh, UK: Parke Davis Ltd., 1995.Google Scholar
Derdak, T., ed. International Directory of Company Histories. London: St. James Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Franko, Lawrence, The European Multinationals: A Renewed Challenge to American and British Big Business. London: Harper & Row, 1976.Google Scholar
Galambos, Lou, and Sewell, Jane. Networks of Innovation: Vaccine Development at Merck, Sharp and Dohme, and Mulford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Haber, L. F. The Chemical Industry During the Nineteenth Century . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Kobrak, Christopher. National Cultures and International Competition: The Experience of Schering AG, 1851–1950 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Kogan, Herman. The Long White Line: The Story of Abbott Laboratories. New York: Random House, 1963.Google Scholar
Lesch, John. The First Miracle Drugs. How Sulfa Drugs Transformed Medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Madison, James, Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885–1977. Bloomington: Indiana Historical Society, 2006.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Tom. Merchants of Life. An Account of the American Pharmaceutical Industry New York: Harper, 1959.Google Scholar
Mines, Samuel. Pfizer… An Informal History. New York: Pfizer Inc., 1978.Google Scholar
Quirke, Vivienne. Collaboration in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Changing Relationships in Britain and France, 1935–1965. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Shook, Robert. Miracle Medicines: Seven Lifesaving Drugs and the People Who Created Them . New York: Random House, 2007.Google Scholar
Slinn, J. A History of May & Baker, 1834–1984. Cambridge, UK: Hobsons, 1984.Google Scholar
Slinn, J. Abbott Laboratories in the UK. Cambridge, UK: Granta, 1999.Google Scholar
Steen, Kathryn. The American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: War and Politics, 1910–1930. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturchio, Jeffrey, and Galambos, Lou. Values and Visions. A Merck Century. Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck & Co. Inc, 1991.Google Scholar
Swann, John P. Academic Scientists and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Co-operative Research in Twentieth Century America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Mira. The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914–1945. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Athreye, Suma, and Godley, Andrew C.. “Internationalisation and Technological Leapfrogging in the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 18, no. 2 (2009): 295–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadberry, Stephen. “The Performance of Manufacturing.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, edited by Floud, Roderick and Johnson, Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burhop, Carsten. “Max Planck Pre-prints: Pharmaceutical Research in Wilhelmine Germany: The Case of E. Merck.” Preprint. Bonn: Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, 2008/3.Google Scholar
Burhop, Carsten. “Pharmaceutical Research in Wilhelmine Germany: The Case of E. Merck.” Business History Review 83, no. 3 (2009): 475–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantwell, John A. “Historical Trends in International Patterns of Technological Innovation.” In New Perspectives on the Late Victorian Economy, edited by Foreman-Peck, James. Cambridge: University Press, 1991, pp. 37–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corley, T. A. B., and Godley, A. C.. “The Veterinary Medicines Industry in Britain, 1900–2000.” Economic History Review, 64, no. 3 (2011): 832–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corley, T. A. B., and Godley, A. C.. “Veterinary Medicines in Britain: Output and Industry Organisation Since 1900.” Medical History , 55 (2011): 361–364.Google Scholar
Cramer, Tobias. “Building the ‘World’s Pharmacy’: The Rise of the German Pharmaceutical Industry, 1871–1914.” Business History Review, 89, no. 1 (2015): 45–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finucane, Brendan T. “Canadian Contributions to the Introduction and Use of Divinyl Ether.” Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 55, no. 12 (2008): 853–858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, J. C. “Basic Research in Industry.” Science, 129, no. 3364 (1959): 1653–1657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furman, Jeffrey L., and McGarvie, Megan J.. “Academic Science and the Birth of Industrial Research.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 63 (2007): 756–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, Lou, and Sturchio, Jeffrey. “Transnational Investment: The Merck Experience, 1891–1925.” Zeitschrift fur Uniternehmergeschichte, 81 (1994): 227–243.Google Scholar
Godley, Andrew. “Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Implicit Contracts and Market Making for Complex Consumer Goods.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 7, no. 4 (2013): 273–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godley, Andrew. “The Emergence of Agribusiness in Europe and the Development of the Western European broiler chicken industry, 1945–1973.” Agricultural History Review, 62 (2014): 292–313Google Scholar
Godley, Andrew and Casson, Mark, “‘Doctor, Doctor ’ Entrepreneurial Diagnosis and Market Making.” Journal of Institutional Economics, 11 (2015): 601–621CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gortler, Leon. “Merck in America: The First 70 Years from Fine Chemicals to Pharmaceutical Giant.” Bulletin of the History of Chemistry 25 (2000): 1–9.Google Scholar
Hannah, Les. “Logistics, Market Size, and Giant Plants in the Early Twentieth Century: A Global View.” Journal of Economic History, 68, no. 1 (2008): 46–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertner, P. “German Multinational Enterprise Before 1914: Some Case Studies.” In Multinationals: Theory and History, edited by Hertner, P. and Jones, G., 113–133. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1987.Google Scholar
Hugill, Peter J., and Bachmann., Veit “The Route to the Techno-Industrial World Economy and the Transfer of German Organic Chemistry to America Before, During and Immediately After World War.” Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 3, no. 2 (2005): 158–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Indianapolis Star (Edelhart, Courtenay). “The Economy: Eli Lilly & Co. A Firm Foundation.” Indianapolis Star, April 18, 1999.Google Scholar
Kline, Ronald. “Constructing ‘Technology’ as ‘Applied Science’: Public Rhetoric of Scientists and Engineers in the United States, 1880–1945.” Isis, 86, no. 2 (1995): 194–221.Google Scholar
Kobrak, Christopher. “Issues in German Corporate Governance: A Note on the History of Schering AG and the Culture of German Capitalism.” Paper presented to European International Business Academy, Stockholm, Sweden, December 1996.Google Scholar
Lee, Jeho. “Innovation and Strategic Divergence: An Empirical Study of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry from 1920 to 1960.” Management Science, 49, no. 2 (2003): 143–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Industrial R&D in Pharmaceutical Firms in the Early Twentieth Century.” Business History, 26, no. 3 (1984): 329–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liebenau, Jonathan. Medical Science and Medical Industry: The Formation of the American Pharmaceutical Industry. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1984.Google Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Detail Men: Marketing Medicine.” In History, Bagmen and Markets, edited by Davenport-Hines, R. P. T.. Aldershot, UK: Gower, 1986, pp. 82–101.Google Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Modernizing the Business of Health: Pharmaceuticals in Britain, in Comparison with Germany and the USA, 1890–1940.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 22, no. 3 (2013): 807–847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, Matthew. The Billion Dollar Battle: Merck Versus Glaxo . London: Heinemann, 1991.Google Scholar
Owens, Larry. “MIT and the Federal ‘Angel’: Academic R&D and Federal–Private Cooperation Before World War II.” Isis, 81, no. 2 (1990): 188–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, Michael. “Research and the Firm in British Industry, 1919–39.” Science Studies, 2 (1972): 107–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheiding, Tom. “Building the Scholarly Society Infrastructure in Physics in Interwar America.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics , 44, no. 4 (2013): 450–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Michael. “Das Wissenschaftlichen Unternehmen. Zur chemisch-pharmazeutischen Forschung bei E. Merck, Darmstadt, ca. 1900–bis 1930.” Zeitschrift fur Unternehmengeschichte , 62, no. 2 (2017): 163–203.Google Scholar
Sturchio, Jeffrey, and Galambos, Lou. “The German Connection: Merck and the Flow of Knowledge from Germany to the United States, 1880–1930.” Business and Economic History On-Line 9 (2011): 1–14.Google Scholar
Time magazine, various issues, including August 26, 1929, Time “Drug Disinc,” Vol. XXII No. 2.Google Scholar
White, Michael. “US Alien Property Custodian Patent Documents: A Legacy Prior Art Collection from World War II—Part 1. History.” World Patent Information 29, no. 4 (2007): 339–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Athreye, Suma, and Godley, Andrew C.. “Internationalisation and Technological Leapfrogging in the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 18, no. 2 (2009): 295–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadberry, Stephen. “The Performance of Manufacturing.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, edited by Floud, Roderick and Johnson, Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burhop, Carsten. “Max Planck Pre-prints: Pharmaceutical Research in Wilhelmine Germany: The Case of E. Merck.” Preprint. Bonn: Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, 2008/3.Google Scholar
Burhop, Carsten. “Pharmaceutical Research in Wilhelmine Germany: The Case of E. Merck.” Business History Review 83, no. 3 (2009): 475–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantwell, John A. “Historical Trends in International Patterns of Technological Innovation.” In New Perspectives on the Late Victorian Economy, edited by Foreman-Peck, James. Cambridge: University Press, 1991, pp. 37–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corley, T. A. B., and Godley, A. C.. “The Veterinary Medicines Industry in Britain, 1900–2000.” Economic History Review, 64, no. 3 (2011): 832–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corley, T. A. B., and Godley, A. C.. “Veterinary Medicines in Britain: Output and Industry Organisation Since 1900.” Medical History , 55 (2011): 361–364.Google Scholar
Cramer, Tobias. “Building the ‘World’s Pharmacy’: The Rise of the German Pharmaceutical Industry, 1871–1914.” Business History Review, 89, no. 1 (2015): 45–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finucane, Brendan T. “Canadian Contributions to the Introduction and Use of Divinyl Ether.” Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 55, no. 12 (2008): 853–858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, J. C. “Basic Research in Industry.” Science, 129, no. 3364 (1959): 1653–1657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furman, Jeffrey L., and McGarvie, Megan J.. “Academic Science and the Birth of Industrial Research.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 63 (2007): 756–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, Lou, and Sturchio, Jeffrey. “Transnational Investment: The Merck Experience, 1891–1925.” Zeitschrift fur Uniternehmergeschichte, 81 (1994): 227–243.Google Scholar
Godley, Andrew. “Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Implicit Contracts and Market Making for Complex Consumer Goods.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 7, no. 4 (2013): 273–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godley, Andrew. “The Emergence of Agribusiness in Europe and the Development of the Western European broiler chicken industry, 1945–1973.” Agricultural History Review, 62 (2014): 292–313Google Scholar
Godley, Andrew and Casson, Mark, “‘Doctor, Doctor ’ Entrepreneurial Diagnosis and Market Making.” Journal of Institutional Economics, 11 (2015): 601–621CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gortler, Leon. “Merck in America: The First 70 Years from Fine Chemicals to Pharmaceutical Giant.” Bulletin of the History of Chemistry 25 (2000): 1–9.Google Scholar
Hannah, Les. “Logistics, Market Size, and Giant Plants in the Early Twentieth Century: A Global View.” Journal of Economic History, 68, no. 1 (2008): 46–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertner, P. “German Multinational Enterprise Before 1914: Some Case Studies.” In Multinationals: Theory and History, edited by Hertner, P. and Jones, G., 113–133. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1987.Google Scholar
Hugill, Peter J., and Bachmann., Veit “The Route to the Techno-Industrial World Economy and the Transfer of German Organic Chemistry to America Before, During and Immediately After World War.” Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 3, no. 2 (2005): 158–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Indianapolis Star (Edelhart, Courtenay). “The Economy: Eli Lilly & Co. A Firm Foundation.” Indianapolis Star, April 18, 1999.Google Scholar
Kline, Ronald. “Constructing ‘Technology’ as ‘Applied Science’: Public Rhetoric of Scientists and Engineers in the United States, 1880–1945.” Isis, 86, no. 2 (1995): 194–221.Google Scholar
Kobrak, Christopher. “Issues in German Corporate Governance: A Note on the History of Schering AG and the Culture of German Capitalism.” Paper presented to European International Business Academy, Stockholm, Sweden, December 1996.Google Scholar
Lee, Jeho. “Innovation and Strategic Divergence: An Empirical Study of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry from 1920 to 1960.” Management Science, 49, no. 2 (2003): 143–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Industrial R&D in Pharmaceutical Firms in the Early Twentieth Century.” Business History, 26, no. 3 (1984): 329–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liebenau, Jonathan. Medical Science and Medical Industry: The Formation of the American Pharmaceutical Industry. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1984.Google Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Detail Men: Marketing Medicine.” In History, Bagmen and Markets, edited by Davenport-Hines, R. P. T.. Aldershot, UK: Gower, 1986, pp. 82–101.Google Scholar
Liebenau, Jonathan. “Modernizing the Business of Health: Pharmaceuticals in Britain, in Comparison with Germany and the USA, 1890–1940.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 22, no. 3 (2013): 807–847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, Matthew. The Billion Dollar Battle: Merck Versus Glaxo . London: Heinemann, 1991.Google Scholar
Owens, Larry. “MIT and the Federal ‘Angel’: Academic R&D and Federal–Private Cooperation Before World War II.” Isis, 81, no. 2 (1990): 188–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, Michael. “Research and the Firm in British Industry, 1919–39.” Science Studies, 2 (1972): 107–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheiding, Tom. “Building the Scholarly Society Infrastructure in Physics in Interwar America.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics , 44, no. 4 (2013): 450–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Michael. “Das Wissenschaftlichen Unternehmen. Zur chemisch-pharmazeutischen Forschung bei E. Merck, Darmstadt, ca. 1900–bis 1930.” Zeitschrift fur Unternehmengeschichte , 62, no. 2 (2017): 163–203.Google Scholar
Sturchio, Jeffrey, and Galambos, Lou. “The German Connection: Merck and the Flow of Knowledge from Germany to the United States, 1880–1930.” Business and Economic History On-Line 9 (2011): 1–14.Google Scholar
Time magazine, various issues, including August 26, 1929, Time “Drug Disinc,” Vol. XXII No. 2.Google Scholar
White, Michael. “US Alien Property Custodian Patent Documents: A Legacy Prior Art Collection from World War II—Part 1. History.” World Patent Information 29, no. 4 (2007): 339–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Archival Material

Frontline various issues, e.g., 14 (January–February) 1969, 20 (March–April), 1970. Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJ.Google Scholar
Galambos, Lou, and Sturchio, Jeffrey. “Sustaining Innovation: Critical Transitions at Merck & Co., Inc.” Unpublished manuscript, August 8, 1997. Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJ.Google Scholar
Gortler, Leon. “Interview with Adolphe Rosengarten.” Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJGoogle Scholar
Gortler, Leon. “Interview with Jack Connor.” Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJ.Google Scholar
Merck annual reports, various years. Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJ.Google Scholar
Merck Review, various issues. Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJ.Google Scholar
Sharp & Dohme. “The History of Sharp & Dohme: From Apothecary Shop to International Institution.” No author, no date but ca. 1946. Merck Archives, Whitehouse Station, NJGoogle Scholar

Archival Sources

Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, PAGoogle Scholar
Merck KGaA, Archives, Darmstadt, Germany (EMA)Google Scholar
Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ (MA)Google Scholar
U.S. National Archives, MDGoogle Scholar