Sociology of Pharmaceuticals Development and Regulation

A realist conceptualization of interests is proposed in opposition to the fashionable view that interests, objectivity and reality are merely social constructs.

The objective interests of pharmaceutical companies are in profit-maximization, while the objective interests of patients/public health are in the optimization of drugs’ benefit-risk ratios.

The relationship between the interests of pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical regulation is best characterized by ‘neo-liberal corporate bias’ at the macro- and meso-levels.

<p>Bias from commercial interests is examined using a realist sociology of scientific knowledge, which appreciates that assessment of the validity of techno-scientific knowledge claims is essential for their sociological explanation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Commercial interests have been shown to bias science away from the interests of public health, in favor of industry.</p> Signup and view all the answers