The Therapeutic Consequences of the War: World War II and the 20th-Century Expansion of Biomedicine

Daniel Gross and Bhaven Sampat

No 33457, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: During World War II, the U.S. Committee on Medical Research (CMR) undertook an integrated, cross-sectoral effort to develop medical science and technology for war, representing the U.S. government's first substantial investment in medical research. Using data on all CMR research contracts, we show that although it had mixed results during the war, it left a large imprint on the postwar U.S. biomedical innovation system. Research areas it supported experienced rapid growth in postwar science, especially in new subjects. It also stimulated the U.S. pharmaceutical industry's adoption of modern science-based drug discovery, fueled new postwar drug development, influenced medical practice, and shaped extramural research funding at the National Institutes of Health. Contemporary accounts of individual CMR programs point to specific ways these investments enabled old and new subjects to grow. The evidence documents the long-run effects coordinated, application-oriented biomedical research can have on science and technology and challenges the influential 'linear model' paradigm in research policy.

JEL-codes: H51 H56 N42 N72 O31 O32 O33 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-his, nep-ino and nep-tid
Note: DAE EH PE PR
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