"Medical Monopoly is a fascinating book about the history of intellectual property (IP) rights in pharmaceuticals. Gabriel traces the role that patents and trademarks played in the development of the pharmaceutical industry, explores the question of whether IP rights promoted research and development, and identifies the changing attitudes of physicians and scientists to the propriety of patenting drugs. The book reaches a number of conclusions that are surprising to the contemporary student of both IP and pharmaceuticals, and Gabriel does a nice job of marshaling the massive amount of evidence he uncovered into a chronological narrative. This important work will be of interest to historians of patents and trademarks; to historians of medicine, science, and technology; and to scholars of contemporary IP and science policy."--Catherine Fisk, University of California, Irvine "The American Historical Review"
"Medical Monopoly: Intellectual Property Rights and the Origins of the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry, by historian of medicine and the biomedical sciences Joseph M.Gabriel, is a significant and beautifully written book. By linking the study of patenting and other monopolistic practices in the pharmaceutical industry, such as trademarks, to the history of therapeutic reform, it makes an original and valuable contribution to the historiography in a variety of fields, from intellectual property to therapeutic reform, medical ethics, and the pharmaceutical industry. Medical Monopoly is therefore of relevance to a broad range of scholars, but also to clinicians, bioethicists, and the wider public concerned by the power of companies and the potential for conflicts of interest within modern medicine."-- "Bulletin of the History of Medicine"
"In this important new book, Gabriel traces the surprisingly dynamic relationship between intellectual property and the economics and politics of the pharmaceutical industry. Medical Monopoly narrates the formation and reorganization of the 'ethical pharmaceutical industry' in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries around questions of patents, trademarks, and a series of mutually defining alliances made between the medical profession and the modern pharmaceutical enterprise. Gabriel's research in preparation for this volume has been meticulous, and his narrative pacing will help audiences from many different fields engage with the provocative story he has to tell. The resultant work is an elegant demonstration of the power of historical analysis in understanding the present-day connections between patents, trademarks, medical science, and the marketplace, with substantial implications for contemporary policy and practice."--Jeremy A. Greene, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine "The American Historical Review"