The dominance of big pharma: power.

Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy
Andrew Edgar

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a normative model for the assessment of the exercise of power by Big Pharma. By drawing on the work of Steven Lukes, it will be argued that while Big Pharma is overtly highly regulated, so that its power is indeed restricted in the interests of patients and the general public, the industry is still able to exercise what Lukes describes as a third dimension of power. This entails concealing the conflicts of interest and grievances that Big Pharma may have with the health care system, physicians and patients, crucially through rhetorical engagements with Patient Advocacy Groups that seek to shape public opinion, and also by marginalising certain groups, excluding them from debates over health care resource allocation. Three issues will be examined: the construction of a conception of the patient as expert patient or consumer; the phenomenon of disease mongering; the suppression or distortion of debates over resource allocation.

References

Oct 12, 2004·Neuron·Samuel M McClureP Read Montague
Apr 7, 2006·PLoS Medicine·David Healy

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Citations

May 10, 2015·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·Ricardo Camargo, Nicolás Ried
Feb 16, 2020·Journal of Bioethical Inquiry·Narcyz GhineaIan Kerridge
Sep 24, 2019·The American Journal of Bioethics : AJOB·Narcyz Ghinea

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