Since the beginning of the 21st century, John has been at the forefront of challenging the ideology of pharmaceutical innovation. In particular, he has consistently drawn attention to the fact that within the orthodox economics of innovation, much of ‘innovation studies’, and the conventions of pharmaceutical innovation accounting by governments, the fact that a drug product is a pharmaceutical innovation does not necessarily mean that it offers any therapeutic advance over existing medicines on the market, let alone that it is a therapeutic breakthrough. In fact, most pharmaceutical product innovations offer little or no clinically significant therapeutic advance over medicines already available on the market. John has also empirically investigated the ideological process of pharmaceutical innovation in relation to ‘promissory science’ in claims about the efficacy of new drugs in development (e.g. in clinical trials) are pushed to the very limit of scientific credibility and sometimes beyond. This theme is exemplified in the following publications:
John Abraham and Courtney Davis Unhealthy Pharmaceutical Regulation: Innovation, Politics and Promissory Science, 348pp, Palgrave, 2013.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2007) ‘Interpellative sociology of pharmaceuticals: problems and challenges for innovation and regulation in the 21st century’ Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 19: 387-402.
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.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2012) ‘The political dynamics of citizenship, innovation, and regulation in pharmaceutical governance’ Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 25(4): 462-78.
John Abraham and Courtney Davis (2011) ‘The socio-political roots of pharmaceutical uncertainty in the evaluation of “innovative” diabetes drugs in the EU and the US’ Social Science & Medicine, 72: 1574-81.
John Abraham (2002) ‘A social science framework for the analysis of health technology regulation: the risks and benefits of innovative pharmaceuticals in a comparative context’ Health, Risk & Society 4: 305-24.
John Abraham and Tim Reed (2002) ‘Progress, innovation and regulatory science: the politics of international standard-setting’ Social Studies of Science 32: 337-69.
John Abraham, Paul Martin, Courtney Davis, and Alison Kraft (2006) ‘Understanding the “productivity crisis” in the pharmaceutical industry: over-regulation or lack of innovation?’ in (ed.) A. Webster, New Technologies in Health Care, pp. 177-93, Palgrave.