{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T17:28:58Z","timestamp":1791394138470,"version":"4.3.3"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2008,6,1]],"date-time":"2008-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1212278400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/terms"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sci Context"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2008,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Argument<\/jats:title><jats:p>Using the example of the anti-tuberculosis vaccine BCG during the 1920s and 1930s, this article asks how a labile laboratory-modified bacteria was transformed into a genuine standard vaccine packaged and commercialized as a pharmaceutical product. At the center of the analysis lies the notion of standardization inquiring why and how a local laboratory process with standard operating procedures (SOPs) reached its limits and was transformed when the product faced international distribution. Moving from Paul Ehrlich's initial technological notion of<jats:italic>Wertbestimmung<\/jats:italic>referring to a practice physiologically testing the effects of ill-defined antitoxins, the concept of standardization is extended to pharmaceutical and economical meanings implying quality control for biological therapeutic agents produced by a variety of industrial entrepreneurs. Following the request for product uniformity, two ways to maintain levels of compatibility and commonality are depicted opposing SOPs and end-product control. Furthermore, standardization is understood as a spiral, never ending process where progressive transformation of the vaccine in its production and medical uses periodically recreated the necessity of standardization. Developments analyzed are thus understood as a stabilization process aligning laboratory settings, products, and practices with medical theories and practices through technical, bureaucratic, and organizational systems. A paradox of the analysis is that standardization as a historical phenomenon and moment in the history of drug development was initially linked to a problem of under-determination of what was to be standardized and to a knowledge gap before it could become a central concept for quality control.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0269889708001725","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,4,21]],"date-time":"2008-04-21T10:03:59Z","timestamp":1208772239000},"page":"279-310","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Packaging BCG: Standardizing an Anti-Tuberculosis Vaccine in Interwar Europe"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Christian","family":"Bonah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2008,6,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0269889708001725_ref45","first-page":"1589","article-title":"Premiers essais de vaccination antituberculeuse de l'enfant par le bacille Calmette-Gu\u00e9rin (BCG)","volume":"49","author":"Weill-Hall\u00e9","year":"1925","journal-title":"Bulletins et M\u00e9moires de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 m\u00e9dicale des H\u00f4pitaux de Paris"},{"key":"S0269889708001725_ref44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1651-2227.1927.tb11708.x"},{"key":"S0269889708001725_ref39","volume-title":"Menschenversuche in der Weimarer Republik","author":"Reuland","year":"2004"},{"key":"S0269889708001725_ref38","volume-title":"L'hygi\u00e8ne dans la R\u00e9publique. 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