The development of contract research organisations in Sweden : health care, privatisation and neo-liberalism

• This paper examines the role of Contract Research Organisations (CROs) in Swedish health care and pharmaceutical development. Before the recent rise of CROs - which are centrally placed between pharmaceutical companies, public sector health care organisations and test participants in an industry noted for its high financial turnover - recruitment of participants and management of clinical trials were undertaken by academic researchers. Things have changed. In the US, this new state of affairs has been argued to be the outcome of decreasing revenue for physicians and decreasing access to treatment for patients (Fisher 2009). This paper seeks to extend our understanding of the purpose and operation of CROs by reviewing existing literature (cf Mirowski and Van Horn 2005; Fisher 2009), comparing this with data on CROs in Sweden, and placing the study within its neo-liberal context marked as it is by notions of individualism, the politics of choice, self-responsibilisation, and risk. This will enable us explore the changes that CROs have brought to the interrelated practices and processes of risk reduction, prevention and health care in Sweden.

• This paper examines changes in local working conditions instigated by the development of contract research organisations in pharmaceutical development. These developments are seen as occurring in the context of Sweden’s ‘circumscribed neoliberalization’. It is shown how staff remain ambivalent about theshifts of location and identity that these developments imply.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Genus och teknik

Gender and Technology

Industrial Work Environment

Industriell produktionsmiljö

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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