Una perspectiva heterodoxa de la historia de los medicamentos. Dinámicas de inclusión-exclusión de los sueros antituberculosos Ravetllat-Pla en la España del primer tercio del siglo XX

Abstract

In 1924, a historically peak time for tuberculosis in Spain, the Ravetllat-Pla Institute was established with the aim of producing and commercializing an anti-tuberculosis serum and researching the variability of the bacteria implicated in this infection. This bacterial form, proposed by Joaquim Ravetllat in the first decade of the 20th century, led to the formulation of a new etiological-pathologic theory of tuberculosis, which upheld the drugs produced by the Institute and was considered heterodox by the official science of the time. The Catalan medical and political network established a space of exclusion leading to the marginalization of the Institute, which, by strengthening its heterodox identity, generated another space of inclusion. In this space, its refuted scientific theory could be socially legitimated and validated through the commercial success of its pharmaceutical products. In this paper, we suggest that the consideration of medicines as commercial products illustrates the active participation of the different users of the Ravetllat-Pla serum in its social construction, re-conceptualization and legitimization. Moreover, from the theoretical framework of inclusion-exclusion dynamics, this research contributes to understanding the processes of knowledge legitimatization by scientific heterodoxy.