The Patient-Industrial Complex and Medical-Industrial Complex
The term ‘medical-industrial complex’ was first advanced by Barbara and John Ehrenreich in 1969. It is partly derived from US President Eisenhower’s notion of the ‘military-industrial complex’ in his speech of 1961. The ‘medical-industrial complex’ refers to the interactions and collaborations between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. John Abraham’s work in this area has several aspects. He has investigated the influence of pharmaceutical companies on medical scientists during the course of the production of ‘scientific papers’, including use of industrial secrecy contracts. John has also explored how pharmaceutical companies nurture ‘medical opinion leaders’ to advance medico-scientific theories consistent with the development of their drug products. His work under this theme has also covered how medical professionals have resisted influence from pharmaceutical companies and their sales representatives, together with the response of the pharmaceutical industry and relevant governing bodies to such resistance. John Abraham invented the term ‘patient-industrial complex’ to characterize the web of interactions and collaborations (sometimes financial) between patient organizations and the pharmaceutical industry. His work on the patient-industrial complex has focused on how patient organizations supported by pharmaceutical manufacturers have sought to influence government regulatory decision-making via direct participation in committee hearings, the courts, legislative bodies, and/or the media. This theme is exemplified in the following publications:
John Abraham (1995) ‘The Production and Reception of Scientific Papers in the Medical-Industrial Complex’ British Journal of Sociology 46: 167-90.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2013) ‘Science, law and the medical-industrial complex in EU pharmaceutical regulation: the deferiprone controversy’ in Flear, M.L. et al (eds.) European Law and New Health Technologies, pp. 240-55, Oxford University Press.
John Abraham (2010) ‘The pharmaceutical industry and medications’ in (eds.) P. Conrad, C. Bird, A. Freemont & S. Timmermans, American Sociological Association Handbook of Medical Sociology, pp. 290-308, Vanderbilt University Press.
John Abraham and Julie Sheppard The Therapeutic Nightmare: The Battle Over the World’s most Controversial Sleeping Pill, 192pp, Earthscan, 1999.
John Abraham (2002) ‘Transnational industrial power, the medical profession and the regulatory state: adverse drug reactions in the Netherlands and the UK’ Social Science & Medicine 55: 1671-90.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2005) ‘Risking public safety: experts, the medical profession and “acceptable” drug injury’ Health, Risk & Society 7: 379-95.
John Abraham (1994) ‘Negotiation and Accommodation in the Production of Expert Medical Risk Assessment’ Policy Sciences 27: 53-76.
John Abraham and Julie Sheppard (1997) ‘Democracy, Technocracy and the Secret State of Medicine: Expert and Non-Expert Perspectives’ Science, Technology and Human Values 22: 139-167.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis Unhealthy Pharmaceutical Regulation: Innovation, Politics and Promissory Science, 348pp, Palgrave, 2013.
John Abraham (2009) ‘Governing the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS, 1948-2008’ Journal of Health, Politics, Policy and Law 34: 931-77.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2011) ‘Re-thinking innovation accounting in pharmaceutical regulation: a case study in the deconstruction of “therapeutic advance” and “therapeutic breakthrough”’ Science, Technology & Human Values, 36(4): 791-815.