Special Journal Issue, “Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy”

I’m happy to turn the podium over to Professor Marc Rodwin, who a while back sent me the message below, which I managed to put aside at the time without posting, and am now making amends. The topic his symposium addresses—note the free access to the papers—should be of great interest to readers of this blog:

I thought you and the readers of your blog might be interested in a forthcoming symposium on Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy that will be published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2013: Vol. 14 (3).

Below I list a bit of information about the symposium.  I have also attached a list of the articles with URL links on SSRN which has free access.  Also, these items can also be obtained through the Edmond J. Safra Center Lab on Institutional Corruption Web page,

http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/lab/featured/325-jlme-symposium

The goals of pharmaceutical policy and medical practice are often undermined due to institutional corruption — that is, widespread or systemic practices, usually legal, that undermine an institution’s objectives or integrity. The pharmaceutical industry’s own purposes are often undermined.  In addition, pharmaceutical industry funding of election campaigns and lobbying skews the legislative process that sets pharmaceutical policy. Moreover, certain practices have corrupted medical research, the production of medical knowledge, the practice of medicine, drug safety, and the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of pharmaceutical marketing.

I invited a group of scholars to analyze these issues, with each author taking a different look at the sources of corruption, how it occurs and what is corrupted. The articles address five topics: (1) systemic problems, (2) medical research, (3) medical knowledge and practice, (4) marketing, and (5) patient advocacy organizations.

Advanced copies of the 16 symposium articles are now available through SSRN online.  [http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/lab/featured/325-jlme-symposium]

For a summary of each article and the key themes in the symposium see, Marc Rodwin, Institutional Corruption and Pharmaceutical Policy

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2298140

Marc A. Rodwin, J.D., Ph.D.P

Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School
Lab Fellow, Edmond J. Safra Center, Harvard University
mrodwin@suffolk.edu