Two Cultures of Regulation? The Production and State Control of Diphtheria Serum at the End of the Nineteenth Century in France and Germany

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, diphtheria was one of the principal causes of mortality in children. The serum therapy represented a major therapeutic innovation in modern medicine. Offering an effective curative approach against certain diseases, the serum also attracted state attention because as a medicine of biological origin it presented numerous public health risks. After an introduction that describes how serum was produced in France and Germany, the article compares the two cultures of regulation of serum production and distribution in the two countries at the end of the 19th century. The article discusses how different actors from industry, state and science cooperated in the two national contexts to regulate serum production. The article aims to characterize the different cultures of regulation and the different forms of indirect government oversight of public health issues and government influence in this sphere.