BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION TO CELL THERA PIES - NEW FORMS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN MEDICINE AND INDUSTRIAL FIRMS

The article describes the rapid technical substitution, since 1990/199 1, of peripheral blood progenitor stem cells (PBPSC) reinjection to bo ne marrow transplantation in oncology and hematology. It analyses the various strategies of the actors involved in such technical innovation in order to show how most important issues are indeed at stake. A fir st issue deals with the regulatory, economic and ethical status of new class of therapeutics, the so-classed cell therapies and their future potential development to gene therapies. A second issue concerns emer ging new forms of cooperation and control between industrial firms, cl inicians and hospitals and regulatory agencies, in the health care sec tor, with a potential major impact on the equilibrium between market f orces and the public sector.