Circulation of Penicillin in Spain

María Jesús Santesmases is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Philosophy at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid. She is a historian of biology and has published on the twentieth-century history of molecular biology and biochemistry, genetics, antibiotics and women scientists. She is co-editor with Teresa Ortiz-Gómez of Gendered Drugs and Medicine (2014), and with Edna Suárez of A Cell-Based Epistemology: New Historical Approaches to Human Genetics, a special issue of the journal, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (2015).

“An important book that pushes the boundaries of the historiography of biomedicine in many ways, The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain is also an interesting read for beginners, thanks to comprehensive introductions to the twentieth-century history of Spain; the origins of industrial drug production; the genealogy of penicillin; the history of antibiotic development, screening, and resistance; the standardization of terminology; and European consumption and regulation policies.” (Agata Ignaciuk, Technology and Culture, Vol. 62 (2), April, 2021)“Marıá Jesús Santesmases’s innovative new book, The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain, stands at the crossroads of two recent historiographies: science and technology under fascism, and the history of drugs. … Santesmases interweaves a story of biomedical politics and political economy with an on-the-ground exploration of gender and labor in the Spanish drug industry.” (Angela N. H. Creager, Journal of the History of Biology, August, 2018)​

• 1. Introduction: the West, Spain and the early circulation of penicillin.- 2. Fleming in Spain: the hero, the antimicrobial and the politics of public acclaim.- 3. Manufacturing penicillin: health, industry and gender.- 4. Smuggling: The management of scarcity and trade of penicillin as a post-war commodity.- 5. Modern Times: screening antibiotics and the factory line.- 6. A new promising drug: bacteria, antibiotics and marketing.- 7. Beyond healing: antibiotic resistance and regulatory regimes as agents in the Spanish transition to democracy.- 8. Penicillin in Spain, 1940s-1980s: Circulating health, research and gender.- 9. Final reflections.