Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13458

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: book

O'Donovan O, Glavanis-Grantham K. (Eds)
Power, Politics and Pharmaceuticals: Drug Regulation in Ireland in the Global Context
: Cork University Press 2008
http://www.corkuniversitypress.com/epages/corkuniversitypress.storefront

Abstract:

Public concerns about the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry have intensified in recent years. Paradoxically, these concerns center on the over-consumption of medicines of dubious benefit in Western societies and lack of access to essential medicines in the Global South.

By demonstrating how the analysis of pharmaceutical drug regulation can provide rich insights into the operation of power and politics in contemporary society, the contributors challenge the prevailing construction of drug regulation as a sphere of “policy without politics” and suggest alternative ways of regulating medicines.

Just two of the central questions that are explored in this book include: what are the implications for health that arise from the existing systems of pharmaceutical drug regulation?; what do the existing systems of drug regulation reveal about the power of transnational pharmaceutical corporations to shape regulatory and other policies?

The importance attached to placing the Irish regulatory system in its international context is reflected in the inclusion of chapters that consider regulatory trends in Australia, Canada and Britain, and chapters that address the implications of World Trade Organisation and EU regulatory policies.

Contents

Introduction-Orla O’Donovan

Globalisation, Power and the Politics of Science

Globalisation and Pharmaceuticals: Where Is the Power? Where to Resist?-Denis O’Hearn and Stephen McCloskey

The Pharmaceutical Industry and the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPs Agreement: Intellectual Property, Global Governance and Health-Gerard Downes

Bias and Science in Knowledge Production:Implications for the Politics of Drug Regulation-John Abraham

Medicines Regulation in Ireland: Health and Democracy at Risk?

The Emergence of Pharmaceutical Industry Regulation for Competition (aka Profit) in Ireland-Orla O’Donovan

Alliance for Progress or Unholy Alliance? The Transnational Pharmaceutical Industry, the State and the University in Ireland-Kathy Glavanis-Grantham

Drug Expenditure in Ireland: Explaining Recent Trends-Michael Barry, Lesley Tilson and Máirín Ryan

The Medical Profession and the Pharmaceutical Industry:Entwined, Entangled or Ensnared?-Colin Bradley

The Dominance of Drug-Based Mental Health Care in Ireland:A Personal Account of a General Practitioner Turned Psychotherapist-Terry Lynch

Controversy and Change: Medicines Regulation in Canada, Britain and Australia Chapter

New Directions in Canadian Drug Regulation: Whose Interests are Being Served?- Joel Lexchin

Turbulence in UK Medicines Regulation: A Stink about SSRI Antidepressants that Isn’t Going Away-Andrew Herxheimer

Is Australia’s National Medicines Policy Failing? The Case of COX-2 Inhibitors-Agnes Vitry, Joel Lexchin and Peter R. Mansfield