Global pharmaceuticals

Drug spending in some regions has climbed to extreme levels, while people elsewhere cannot obtain even essential medicines. Many individuals cannot pay for their prescriptions, and entire populations are overlooked because they are viewed as too poor to make drug development and distribution worthwhile for companies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this collection examines how the expanding global pharmaceutical trade operates and how market-driven medicine produces and deepens inequality between nations and groups.

The contributors trace the question of who receives treatment through every stage of the medicine lifecycle, including preclinical research, human trials, marketing, distribution, prescribing, and use by patients. The essays cover American firms working to build a market for antidepressants in Japan, Brazil's model program for HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and the ways poor residents of Delhi understand and reach health services. Throughout, the authors consider the part played by corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals in shaping access to pharmaceuticals worldwide.