The Pharmaceuticalization of Society

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. What are the implications for health of existing systems of pharmaceutical drug regulation? --Power, Politics and Pharmaceuticals (ISBN 978 185918 419 6, hbk, 272 pp, 234 x 156mm, €49/£33).

(PRWEB) January 30, 2008 -- 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. What are the implications for health of existing systems of pharmaceutical drug regulation? --Power, Politics and Pharmaceuticals (ISBN 978 185918 419 6, hbk, 272 pp, 234 x 156mm, €49/£33).   

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 Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. Kathy Glavanis-Grantham is a Lecturer in Department of Sociology, University College Cork

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