Values in motion: anti-counterfeiting measures and the securitization of pharmaceutical flows. Issue 2 (4th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Quet, Mathieu
• Is Part Of: Journal of cultural economy. Volume 10:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 150
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2017-03-04
• Subjects: Pharmaceuticals -- security -- socio-technical controversies -- India -- Kenya -- global health -- health activism; Economics -- Sociological aspects -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Periodicals; 306.3
• DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2016.1258001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-0350

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The past decade has seen an increase in anti-counterfeiting practices, especially in the pharmaceutical field. These practices aim at reducing the number of bad medicines available on the market, especially in countries where pharmaceutical regulation is still weak. But they have been accused of serving the interests of Big Pharma by reinforcing intellectual property instead of promoting better quality medicines. Based on a study of the controversies provoked by anti-counterfeiting laws and devices, this paper analyses anti-counterfeiting politics and shows: (a) the aim of this mode of government is to discriminate between medicines in order to regulate the value attached to distribution processes and (b) the tensions and contradictions which characterize anti-counterfeiting discourses and practices. As such, a central characteristic of pharmaceutical markets is the shift of value conflicts towards circulation and distribution rather than production. The securitization of pharmaceutical flows, rather than being in addition to the production of pharmaceuticals, emerges as a new disputed way of producing economic value, legality and social legitimacy for globalized technical commodities such as medicines.