Quinine, Malaria, and the Cinchona Bureau: Marketing Practices and Knowledge Circulation in a Dutch Transoceanic Cinchona-Quinine Enterprise (1920s-30s)

Abstract

In this study, we show how a Dutch pharmaceutical consortium of cinchona producers and quinine manufacturers was able to capitalize on one of the first international public health campaigns to fight malaria, thereby promoting the sale of quinine, an antimalarial medicine. During the 1920s and 1930s, the international markets for quinine were controlled by this Dutch consortium, which was a transoceanic cinchona-quinine enterprise centered in the Cinchona Bureau in the Netherlands. We argue that during the interwar period, the Cinchona Bureau became the decision-making center of this Dutch cinchona-quinine pharmaceutical enterprise and monopolized the production and trade of an essential medicine. In addition, we argue that capitalizing on the international public health campaign in the fight against malaria by the Dutch cinchona-quinine enterprise via the Cinchona Bureau can be regarded as an early example of corporate colonization of public health by a private pharmaceutical consortium. Furthermore, we show how commercial interests prevailed over ientific interests within the Dutch cinchona-quinine consortium, thus interfering with and ultimately curtailing the transoceanic circulation of knowledge in the Dutch empire.