Bias and science in knowledge production: implications for the politics of drug regulation
chapter
posted on 2023-06-07, 21:46authored byJohn Abraham
Public concerns about the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry have intensified in recent years, not least because of a series of controversies about drugs such as those used in the treatment of depression, arthritis, and AIDS. Paradoxically, these concerns centre on the over-consumption of medicines of dubious benefit in Western societies, and lack of access to essential medicines in the Global South. Central questions that are explored include: what are the implications for health of existing systems of pharmaceutical drug regulation?; and what do existing systems of drug regulation reveal about the power of transnational pharmaceutical corporations to shape regulatory and other policies? The importance attached to considering the Irish regulatory system in its international context is reflected in the inclusion of chapters that address the implications of World Trade Organisation and EU regulatory policies and regulatory trends in Canada, Britain and Australia. By demonstrating how the analysis of pharmaceutical drug regulation can provide rich insights into the operation of power in contemporary society, this book challenges the prevailing construction of drug regulation as a sphere of ‘policy without politics’ and aims to contribute to the imagination of better ways of regulating medicines.