Antibiotics and the Social History of the Controlled Clinical Trial, 1950-1970

The histories of antibiotics, controlled clinical trials, and attempts by academics to inculcate an explicitly rational therapeutics among clinicians in the United States were linked during a formative period from 1950 to 1970. Maxwell Finland and Harry Dowling would serve at the epicenter of such efforts in the context of first the broad-spectrum antibiotics, and then, and still more critically, the since-forgotten influx of "fixed-dose combination" antibiotics. With their attention focused less upon individual clinicians than upon pharmaceutical marketers, clinical investigators, the American Medical Association, and the federal government, Finland, Dowling and their supporters would wield the "controlled clinical trial" against the pharmaceutical "testimonial" as a means of ensuring a rational therapeutics. In doing so, they would play an important role in the direction the subsequent Kefauver hearings (1959-1962) would take toward mandating proof of drug efficacy via controlled clinical trials prior to new drug approval. Understanding such a trajectory allows us to better appreciate not only the social history of the controlled clinical trial and the priorities of leaders in infectious disease in the United States during this time, but the consequences of their efforts as well.