TY - JOUR
T1 - The Infernal Alternatives of Corporate Pharmaceutical Research
T2 - Abandoning Psychiatry
AU - Dumit, Joseph
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2018/1/2
Y1 - 2018/1/2
N2 - What happens when health research is measured by market size? How does this change the dynamics of medical research, and how is its growth envisioned and managed? In this article, I build on my arguments in Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define our Health, which focused primarily on the development and marketing of mass medications for heart disease and I examine the market dynamics that are used to drive research into and out of psychiatric and other neuromedicines, such as the closing of mental health research at most major pharmaceutical companies. Industry compares entire sectors of medical research to evaluate their relative chances of profits and growth; it is willing to sacrifice a whole region of effective and profitable medicine if it can grow profits more in other regions. Baudrillard, Pignarre, and Stengers are used to consider whether this situation can best be described as one of infernal alternatives, and how to analyze the responses of psychiatric leaders.
AB - What happens when health research is measured by market size? How does this change the dynamics of medical research, and how is its growth envisioned and managed? In this article, I build on my arguments in Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define our Health, which focused primarily on the development and marketing of mass medications for heart disease and I examine the market dynamics that are used to drive research into and out of psychiatric and other neuromedicines, such as the closing of mental health research at most major pharmaceutical companies. Industry compares entire sectors of medical research to evaluate their relative chances of profits and growth; it is willing to sacrifice a whole region of effective and profitable medicine if it can grow profits more in other regions. Baudrillard, Pignarre, and Stengers are used to consider whether this situation can best be described as one of infernal alternatives, and how to analyze the responses of psychiatric leaders.
KW - Clinical trials
KW - corporate capitalism
KW - mental health
KW - pharmaceuticals
KW - psychiatric research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028540090&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01459740.2017.1360877
DO - 10.1080/01459740.2017.1360877
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 28759267
AN - SCOPUS:85028540090
SN - 0145-9740
VL - 37
SP - 59
EP - 74
JO - Medical Anthropology
JF - Medical Anthropology
IS - 1
ER -