SASE 2020

The world is experiencing rapid transformations in the development of new approaches to improving human health and the health of communities, healthcare provision, governance over the use and pricing of drugs and medicines, and medical innovations in biotechnology (genomics and stem cell-based therapies). For example, open innovation systems and sharing in the commons have introduced healing medicines and medical innovations (e.g. the Human Genome Project). At the same time, there is growing inequality in who gets access to medical care and medicines, and at what price.

Meanwhile, market competition has in part led to the opioid crisis of addiction in the United States, human subjects abuses in developing countries in the race to develop new drugs, and a decline in the discovery of radical new innovations in medicines for poor populations. This mini-conference aims to convene a group of related panels around issues in global health and medicines, to facilitate useful critical discussion and reflection on participants’ works-in-progress. Driving questions include:

• What theoretical advances are being made in understanding causal mechanisms in improving, or undermining human health and community health, for example, through state policy and firm and organizational strategy? What new frameworks and methods are being developed to identify key actors and explain actions (e.g. improving, or undermining health, broadly defined)?
• What is the evolving role of the state, healthcare systems and professions, and other actors (multilateral bodies, firms, non-profit organizations) in medical and medicine provision and innovation? Are we seeing a shift from traditional dominant blocks (North America and Europe) to new actors (Asia and the Global South)? Likewise, how have states and healthcare organizations been effective (or ineffective, indifferent) in the valuation and pricing of medicines (fair, equitable, and affordable access to life saving medicines)?

• What should be the responsibility, if any, of the global intellectual property rights regime as arbitrated by such powerful organizations as the World Trade Organization and global corporations in monitoring access and benefit sharing of profits resulting from research and development into new drugs and medicines?
• What are the roles for regulation and institutionalization of markets for such boundary-products between medicine and health food as probiotics, herbals, so-called nutraceuticals, and other dietary supplements – in ensuring the health and safety of consumers and patients?
• In what way is current research and policy aiming for “inclusive” innovation (e.g. in healthcare provision, new drug discovery) focused on distributive aspects versus stakeholder inclusion, or both (e.g. under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs))? What is the relative role for (social) entrepreneurs, large firms, and other actors?

Our mini-conference encourages submissions of papers exploring emerging frameworks and theories, as well as empirically rich original data from the developed and developing world and at various levels of analysis (e.g. local community, firm, state, multilateral institution). Scholars at all levels are welcome. In the spirit of innovation and creativity, the panels will have an interactive workshop format around discussant feedback and moderated audience participation. For more information, contact the co-organizers at medhealthSASE2020@gmail.com.

TH13-01 Roundtable on Economy, Society, Polity: Global and National Health(care) Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic 

Moderator: Kathryn Ibata-Arens and Étienne Nouguez

• Susanne Brucksch, German Institute of Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan
• Adriana Nilsson, University of Liverpool
• Mao Suzuki, University of Southern California 

TH13-02 Analysis of Innovation Trends in Health and Healthcare Product and Service Developments  

Moderator: Étienne Nouguez

• Innovation Activities through Medtech Partnerships in Japan?, Susanne Brucksch, German Institute of Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan
• An Architecture of Inclusive Innovation for New Drug Discovery: Organizational Case Studies from India and Japan, Kathryn Ibata-Arens, DePaul University
• From Nudge to Nudges: Establishing Kidney Donation Systems in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Wan-Zi Lu, University of Chicago
• Enticing the ‘Will to Perform’: Ranking and Competitions in the Market for Virtue, Afshin Mehrpouya, HEC Paris, and Rita Samiolo, King’s College, London

TH01-03 | Regulatory Stakeholders and Medicines ValuationTH13-03 Commodification and Pricing of Health and Body 

Moderator: Kathryn Ibata-Arens and Étienne Nouguez

• The Proliferation and Regulation of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing in China, Larry Au, Columbia University, New York, NY
• Building Opacity, Fighting Opacity. the Opacification of Drug Prices in the EU’s Pharmaceutical Market from the 1980s to 2019, Theo Bourgeron and Susi Geiger, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• Gestational Surrogacy: Slow Relational Practice Vs Scaled-up Streamlined Mass Production, Alya Guseva, Department of Sociology, Boston University, Boston, MA

TH13-04 Global Health Governance: State-, Market-, and Firm- Level Interventions

Moderator: Kathryn Ibata-Arens

• Deciding Modalities of Global Health Governance: What Facilitates or Hinders Public-Private Partnerships?, Mao Suzuki, University of Southern California
• Changing Pharmaceutical Markets in the Global South Carine Baxerres, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Marseille, France
• Monitoring Drug Markets: From Biomedical to Social Valuation the Vicissitudes of the French Drug Agency (ANSM), Étienne Nouguez, Centre de Sociologie des Organisations, Paris, France, Hadrien Coutant, Sciences Po /CSO, Paris, France; Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Compiègne, France, Henri Bergeron, Sciences Po, CNRS, Paris, France and Patrick Castel, SCIENCES PO, PARIS, France
• Coordinating to Address Complex Problems: The World Health Organisation and the Case of Essential Medicines, Adriana Nilsson, University of Liverpool