Includes bibliographical references and index

Origins: Rise of the great American patent -- Ethical medicine in the republic of science -- Death of the taboo: Sunshine in a bottle -- Thurman's army: The new deal against monopoly -- Homesteading the endless frontier: Patents, Penicillin, and superpower science -- The birth of big pharma and the ghost of reform -- The making of a monster -- Black pill: Neoliberalism and the Chicago turn -- Bayh-Dole and the Reagan acceleration -- The most expensive drug ever sold: Generics, AIDS, and AZT -- The World Trade Organization: Drug monopolies at the end of history -- COVID-19 and the battle over business as usual -- Pharma's best friend: Bill Gates and COVID-19 -- Crown jewels in a black box: Trade secrets and lies

"This book tells the story of the legal right to control the production of lifesaving medicines. Medical science began as a discipline geared toward the betterment of all human life, but the merging of research with intellectual property and the rise of the pharmaceutical industry warped and eventually undermined its ethical foundations. Since the Second World War, federally funded research has facilitated most major medical breakthroughs, yet these drugs are often wholly controlled by corporations with growing international ambitions. Why does the U.S. government fund the development of medical science in the name of the public, only to relinquish exclusive rights to drug companies, and how does such a system impoverish us, weaken our responses to global crises, and, as in the case of AIDS and COVID-19, put the world at risk? Outlining how generations of public health and science advocates have attempted to hold the line against 'big pharma' and their allies in government, Alexander Zaitchik documents the rise of medical monopoly in the United States and its subsequent globalization. Zaitchik traces this history from the controversial arrival of patent-wielding German drug firms in the late nineteenth century, to present day coordination between industry and philanthropic organizations (including the influential Gates Foundation) that stymie international efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19"--