FOREIGN TRADE: Sterling's Economic Warfare

For more than two years, the biggest U.S. drug manufacturer, Sterling Drug Inc., has been purging itself of its prewar Germanic taint by flooding Latin America, where it used to act as agent for huge I. G. Farbenindustrie, with strictly U.S. drugs. In so doing, it: 1) surprised itself by making a lot of money (over $700,000 last year, almost 10% of its total net income); 2) became a potent agent in U.S. economic warfare. Starting from 'scratch on aspirin, for example — which used to be a $3,500,000-a-year I. G. business — Sterling has now developed more than...