Seminar
Wednesday 15th December 2010, 10.45am - 12.15pm, Room V1009, Tower 2, LSE
Speaker: Eunjeong Ma
Chair: Ruth Kattumuri
This paper discusses the processes of establishing the terms and conditions of getting access to an innovative prescription drug with particular attention to the shaping of ‘ethical market,’ into which the desires and despairs of the biomedically afflicted populations are captured. Two premises are set: the size of afflicted population is relatively small so that it can be less prioritized in policy concerns; and yet, the consumption of the drug can alter the life history of the illness from fatal to chronic condition as well as the lifestyle of the patient from bare to new life. More importantly, these premises should be met with the global trade order. Under the circumstances, patients mobilized all political and social means to politicize the global order embedded in intellectual property rights, bio-innovative drugs, and drug pricing policies, rather than passively waiting for international and national regulatory arrangements to be resolved. In the process, they made a strategic alliance with physicians, pharmacists, and social activists to create the political and moral space in which they demand their rights as legitimate, global citizens rather than as deprived species. This strategic space is spoken in the languages of responsibility and morality.
Speakers
Dr. Eunjeong Ma is a Korea Foundation Fellow at the Asia Research Centre from Seoul National University.
Dr. Ruth Kattumuri| is the Co-Director of the Asia Research Centre and India Observatory