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The bitter pill. Ethics and biopolitics in the pharmaceutical industry

14 December 2022

Are drug manufacturers inventing new diseases? Can science work for profit?

What distinguishes conflicts of interest from corruption?

The author outlines these and other controversial practices in the pharmaceutical industry. She writes about reprehensible forms of commercialisation of knowledge, lobbying by pharmaceutical companies and marketing of health products. In parallel, she analyses the biopolitical aspects of these practices and subjects them to an in-depth ethical evaluation.

Author boldly formulates moral, social and political problems associated with the activities of the pharmaceutical industry, which, in the context of the power of pharmaceutical corporations and the size of the industry analysed, deserves the highest praise.

Dr Aleksandra Derra

The issues addressed are presented competently, testifying to a very good research workshop, orientation in the vast source material and knowledge of sociology, political philosophy, ethics. (...) The evaluation of the activities of pharmaceutical companies is balanced, supported by the analysis of rich factual material and knowledge of extensive scientific literature.

Dr. Danuta Ślęczek-Czakon