Show Notes
A tiny number of huge companies dominate the pharmaceutical industry, making extraordinary profits in the process. All the while, the poorest people around the world struggle to access medicines they need to survive. What does the COVID-19 pandemic tell us about Big Pharma? What's the problem with a cartelized global market? What role does Bill Gates play in solving (or reproducing) the big challenges of global health? Is there a political economy explanation for rising anti-vaccine sentiment? Should we expect Trump's second Presidency to challenge the dominance of Big Pharma?
Dr Owain Williams is a Senior Research Fellow at the Commercial and Economic Determinants of Health Research Translation Centre at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia and a Visiting Associate Professor in Global Political Economy and Health at University of Leeds. Professor Simon Rushton is Professor of International Politics at University of Sheffield.
They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss Owain's recent co-authored paper COVID and structural cartelisation: market-state-society ties and the political economy of Pharma (2024). They consider the relationship between states and big pharmaceutical firms; the role of philanthropic-capitalist organisations like the Gates Foundation in global health governance; how effective (or not) markets are in delivering welfare goods like vaccinations; and the rise of vaccine hesitancy across the political spectrum.
'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.
This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from SPERI Presents...
Why do states carry on extracting fossil fuels amid climate collapse? Why have some pledged to phaseout fossil fuels over the next few decades? Why are supply-side policies important? What will the coming decades of energy politics looks like?
What actually is an electrostate? How do the material substances of electricity and fossil fuels shape state power? Is the US a petrostate and does this question expose the flimsiness of the concept? When we talk about electrostates, do we really just mean China?
Why has the Global South been peripheralized in the study of international political economy (IPE)? What does this cause us to miss in our scholarship? How are sovereignties and power dynamics produced in the Global South? How should teaching IPE change?
How is value constructed and contested in the wine industry? What is the significance of place and nature? What does the win industry tell us about capitalist production in general?
How should we understand the ruptural shift of the second China shock? How does it effect what we thought we knew about China and global production? How can we study this transformation? What comes next?