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Distinguished Public Lecture: 'Ghost-Managed Medicine and Political Economies of Knowledge'



Event Date 09 Jan 2019 (Wed), 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Venue HSS Seminar Room 6 (HSS-01-04) (Location Map)
Organiser CLASS-NISTH (Email : rachel_tan@ntu.edu.sg  Tel/Fax : 69081177)


Event Info

'Ghost-Managed Medicine and Political Economies of Knowledge'

Abstract

In the pharmaceutical industry, knowledge is a resource to be accumulated, shaped and deployed to best effect. Companies produce special-purpose knowledge, flood markets in which they are most interested, and distribute it via effective channels. For example, to gain the largest scientific impact and market value from research, drug companies engage in “publication planning”: As displayed in detailed statements by publication planners, articles are often ghostwritten for key opinion leaders and placed in medical journals with broad impact. The presentation builds on the pharmaceutical industry example to make a case for studying political economies of knowledge.

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Sergio Sismondo is a Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at Queen’s University, Canada. His main empirical research project is on how pharmaceutical companies attempt to establish control over particular domains of medical knowledge, through their efforts on everything from clinical trials to medical education. Summing up much of this research is a book for a non-specialist audience, entitled Ghost-Managed Medicine: Big Pharma’s Invisible Hands (available open access from Mattering Press). Sismondo’s other work spans the field of Science and Technology Studies: He is the author of An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies and the editor of the journal Social Studies of Science.

*The lecture will be from 11am  - 12pm and reception from 12pm - 1pm.



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