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.
Orla O'Donovan is a Lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork. Kathy Glavanis-Grantham is Lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork.
Contents
Introduction by Orla O'Donovan
Globalisation, Power and the Politics of Science
Globalisation and Pharmaceuticals: Where Is the Power? Where to Resist? by Denis O'Hearn and Stephen McCloskey
The Pharmaceutical Industry and the World Trade Organisation's TRIPs Agreement: Intellectual Property, Global Governance and Health by Gerard Downes
Bias and Science in Knowledge Production: Implications for the Politics of Drug Regulation by John Abraham
Medicines Regulation in Ireland: Health and Democracy at Risk?
The Emergence of Pharmaceutical Industry Regulation for Competition (aka Profit) in Ireland by Orla O'Donovan
Alliance for Progress or Unholy Alliance? The Transnational Pharmaceutical Industry, the State and the University in Ireland by Kathy Glavanis-Grantham
Drug Expenditure in Ireland: Explaining Recent Trends by Michael Barry, Lesley Tilson and Máirín Ryan
The Medical Profession and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Entwined, Entangled or Ensnared? by Colin Bradley
The Dominance of Drug-Based Mental Health Care in Ireland: A Personal Account of a General Practitioner Turned Psychotherapist by Terry Lynch
Controversy and Change: Medicines Regulation in Canada, Britain and Australia
Chapter
New Directions in Canadian Drug Regulation: Whose Interests are Being Served? by Joel Lexchin
Turbulence in UK Medicines Regulation: A Stink about SSRI Antidepressants that Isn't Going Away by Andrew Herxheimer
Is Australia's National Medicines Policy Failing? The Case of COX-2 Inhibitors by Agnes Vitry, Joel Lexchin and Peter R. Mansfield