The Neoliberal Regulatory State, Industry Interests, and the Ideological Penetration of Scientific Knowledge

Author:

Abraham John1,Ballinger Rachel2

Affiliation:

1. Department of Sociology, Centre for Research and Health in Medicine (CRHaM), University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

2. Cancer Research UK, Sussex Psychological Oncology Group, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

Abstract

It is argued that neoliberal political ideology has redefined the regulatory state to have greater convergence of interests and goals with the pharmaceutical industry than previously, particularly regarding acceleration and cost reduction of drug development and regulatory review. Consequently, the pharmaceutical industry has been permitted to set the agenda about how shorter term and cheaper alternative carcinogenicity testing systems are investigated for validity. The authors contend that, with the tacit approval of the neoliberal regulatory state, the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry framed the process and interpretation of validating these new test systems, thereby influencing what counts as knowledge about the carcinogenic status of new pharmaceuticals. While such alternative tests were occasioned by “molecularization,” the framing of their validation was not determined by technoscientific logic or a lack of standards of validation, but by the sociopolitical goals of the controlling institutions. Indeed, a different validation process could have been conducted had the priority been to develop carcinogenicity testing in the interests of public-health protection. While the resulting validation indicated that the short-term alternative tests posed small risks to the commercial interests of pharmaceutical firms, they provided little reassurance that patients would not be exposed to greater risks than before from undetected carcinogens.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Human-Computer Interaction,Economics and Econometrics,Sociology and Political Science,Philosophy,Social Sciences (miscellaneous),Anthropology

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