06/13/2026
The Flexner Report: How Rockefeller and Carnegie Created Modern Pharmaceutical Medicine
By | KBA4 WordPress
Journalist: Leanne Sansonetti
The Flexner Report of 1910, funded by John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, closed over 100 medical schools in America within a decade. Homeopathy, naturopathy, herbal medicine, electrotherapy, and other natural approaches were eliminated not because they failed, but because they could not be patented. This single move shaped the modern medical system to prioritize petrochemical drugs.
Before 1910, American medicine offered real choices. Doctors practiced diverse methods including homeopathy, naturopathy, eclectic medicine, hydrotherapy, and electrotherapy. These affordable options competed freely and helped many patients heal.
Abraham Flexner, an educator with no medical background, led the Carnegie Foundation study. His 1910 report pushed for only pharmaceutical and laboratory based training to receive funding and accreditation. Schools teaching natural and energy based healing lost support.
The Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, tied to petroleum and emerging pharmaceutical interests, backed the changes. Within years the number of medical schools fell from 155 to 31.
Homeopathic colleges vanished. Naturopathic and eclectic programs shut down. Electrotherapy disappeared from training.
By 1930 pharmaceutical medicine dominated. Nutrition, prevention, and the bodys natural healing were sidelined. Doctors learned to diagnose and prescribe patented synthetic drugs derived from petroleum byproducts.
The entire system from schools to hospitals to insurance became a delivery network for profitable molecules. The Flexner Report is public record. The school closures, funding sources, and industry ties are documented history.
Natural therapies like frequency medicine, herbal remedies, and electrotherapy were never disproven they were simply defunded and labeled quackery. This was not a scientific reform. It was a business strategy by oil barons to create lifelong customers for their products.
The Flexner Report 1910. The day medicine became big business.