Paris, December 9th-10th-11th 2010
Drugs, Standards and the Practices of Globalization
An international conference of the European Science Foundation Program DRUGS
organized by Cermes3 (Centre de Recherches Médecine, Sciences, Santé et
Société) with the support of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
To be held in Paris on December 9th-10th-11th 2010
Reid Hall 4, rue de Chevreuse 75006 PARIS - Tel 01 43 20 33 07
Information and inscription
Maurice Cassier (cassier@vjf.cnrs.fr)
Jean-Paul Gaudillière (gaudilli@vjf.cnrs.fr)
Globalization has become a major issue in studies of contemporary science
and medicine. The range of problems investigated is vast including the
surveillance of new epidemics, the development of health markets crossing
national and continental boundaries, the internationalization of medical
research, the rising economic power of countries like Brazil, China or India
and their mounting role in the production of therapeutic agents, the
conflicts about biological resources and drug intellectual property, or the
renewed interests in traditional systems of medicine and local knowledge.
Drugs, their invention, making and uses, have a central role in the new
globalization of diseases and remedies. Global standardization has therefore
emerged as a marker and occasional topic of analysis, for instance with
investigation about the delocalization of clinical trials, the relationship
between national regulation agencies, or the standardization activities of
the World Health Organization.
However most studies tend to forget that globalization in general,
international drug management and standardization in particular are not new
processes and practices. The present globalization is just the last phase in
a long history. Global drug making and standardization may for instance be
traced back to the late 19th century when the rapid industrialization of
pharmaceuticals met what the so-called second globalization with its cortege
of world fairs, international conferences, new trade routes, capital export
and colonization.
The aim of this workshop is to advance the discussion of both these
historical routes and recent transformation in the global life of drugs and
standards. The aim is however not to simply enlarge the frame of analysis,
include international activities in the landscape, and reconsider the
national boundaries of standardization. It is rather to address the complex
interplay between standardization and the resistance to it, between local
and global levels of production, regulation, and use. The circulation of
knowledge and practices associated with the definition of good, efficient,
valuable, usable, and profitable therapeutic agents did not merely made
"things" available but changed them. The global government of drugs must not
be equated with the creation of international boards or the appropriation of
colonial raw materials but must be looked at various levels. Within the
perspective of this workshop, special attention will be paid to the
relations the essential practices of displacement and alignment have
maintained, focusing on the tools involved in the making of global drugs,
i.e. instruments, technical protocols as well as institutional arrangements.
The workshop will accordingly discuss issues like (the list is indicative
and not exhaustive) : a) the activities and trajectory of international
standardization and/or regulatory bodies like the Ligue of Nations, the
World Health Oroganization or the World Intellectual Property Organization ;
b) the history and contemporary transformation of pharmacopoeia ; c) the
various ways in which the notion of basic health needs has been addressed
and turned into operations, for instance with research programs or lists of
“essential drugs” ; d) the making or unmaking of drugs targeting diseases
like malaria or tuberculosis, which were once diseases of the North to
become (neglected) diseases of developed countries.
Given the need for more systematic comparison of past and present
globalization, one specific feature of this meeting will be to include
historians as well as specialists in the various social sciences interested
in the contemporary world of global drugs.
Provisional program Thursday, December 9th, 2010
9h-9h15
Maurice Cassier and Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Wellcoming remarks
9h15-9h30
Arianna Ciula, Presentation of ESF
Session 1 - Drugs, globalization and the World Health Organization
9h30-10h
Axel Hüntelmann, The Globalization of evaluation. Biological standardization
within the German Institute for experimental therapy and the Standardization
committee of the Hygiene Organization of the Ligue of Nations
10h-10h30
Christoph Gradmann, Standardising Resistance. WHO and Antibiotic Sensitivity
Testing in the 1960s
10h30-11h
Michael Bresalier, Virus Strains and Vaccine Standards : Coordinating the
World Health Organization’s Influenza Programme through the Developing Chick
Egg, 1947-1957
11h-11h15
Pause
11h15-11h45
Jeremy Greene, Standardizing pharmaceutical promotion at WHO, 1962-1988
11h45-12h15
German Velasquez, The acces to drugs between the new rules of international
trade and the right to health
12h15-13h15
Comments and discussion : Elizabeth Fee
Session 2 - Globalizing industrial products : pharmaceutical firms and their
strategies
14h30-15h
Christian Bonah, ‘In the service of humanity’ : Film advertisement of German
phamaceuticals for a global market, 1930-1960
15h-15h30
Lea Haller, Local practices and global networks : Ciba’s search for
Strophantus in West Africa
15h30-15h45
Pause
15h45-16h15
Tobias Cramer, Bayer’s “wonder drug” in Latin America. Marketing analgesics
in the inter-war period
16h15-16h45
Miloud Kadar, Global vaccine market : the role of emerging manufacturers
16h45-17h45
Comments and discussion : Viviane Quirke
Friday, December 10th, 2010
Session 3. Global diseases, global remedies
9h30-10h
Susan Craddock, The production and distribution challenges of new
tuberculosis drugs
10h-10h30
Jean-Hervé Bradol, Resistant malaria treated by mediation from Asia to
Africa
10h30-10h45
Pause
10h45-11h
Guillaume Lachenal, The social lives of Pentamidine. Hypes, hopes, amnesia
and neglect from colonial medicine to global health
11h-11h30
Floriane Blanc, From Melarsoprol to NECT. Innovation, standardization and
the treatment of African Human Trypanosomiase
11h30-12h30
Comments and discussion : Alice Desclaux (to be confirmed)
Session 4. Regulation and international standards for drugs
14h-14h30
Adriana Petryna, Risk and the competitive logic of global clinical trials
14h30-15h
Boris Hauray, European integration and the internationalisation of drug
regulation.
15h-15h30
Loes Knaapen, International standardization of local guideline development
15h30-15h45
Pause
15h45-16h15
Sophie Chauveau, The limits of global standards in the blood industry
16h15-16h45
Christopher Lantenois, WHO prequalification : challenges and impacts on the
suppliers of ARVs
16h45-17h45
Comments and discussion : Volker Hess
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
9h30-12h
Roundtable and general discussion with Iris Borowy, Pratik Chakrabarty,
Benjamin Coriat, and Cori Hayden