During the last decades, the global manufacturing of generic medicines has shifted towards pharmaceutical industries located in Asia. Often called ‘the world's pharmacy’, India now has the third largest pharmaceutical industry in the world in terms of volume and the tenth largest in terms of value. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally, accounting for about 20 % of global exports.
Generic antibiotics are a group of medicines that are vital for the treatment and prevention of common infectious diseases and medical conditions, although their efficacy is diminishing due to the emergence of drug resistance. Despite a considerable rise in the global consumption of antibiotics over the last decades, it is estimated that no access, or delays in access, to antibiotics still kill more people than antibiotic resistance globally.
Taking global access to antibiotics into consideration, this seminar will discuss the history and role of India’s pharmaceutical industry as a manufacturer and exporter of antibiotics. The seminar will provide insights into the exports of antibiotics from India, as well as India’s dependency on imports of antibiotic ingredients from China. Inspired by the concept of ‘pharmaceutical geographies’ used by historian Jeremy A. Greene, the seminar will draw attention to the importance of thinking about places and spaces and their specific historical circumstances in our understanding of the uneven distribution of medicines in different parts of the world.
Transnational pharmaceutical industries are organizationally and technologically complex, which makes it challenging for researchers to get a comprehensive understanding of these industries. This seminar will illustrate a research approach that can be used to trace pharmaceutical and antibiotic geographies through the collection and analysis of publicly available trade data.
Please note that the seminar will be in English and not streamed online.
About Lise Bjerke
Lise Bjerke is a Doctoral Research Fellow in global health and medical anthropology at the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Oslo. As part of the FAR project, she studies the production, regulation and export of Indian antibiotics for African markets. Lise has also worked as an adviser at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) and at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH/FHI).
Lise holds holds an M.Phil. degree in Culture, Environment and Sustainability and a bachelor's degree in India area studies from the University of Oslo, including an exchange to SOAS University of London. Her master's thesis explored food security and access to public food security programmes among low-income, internal migrants in Bangalore, India. In 2018, she received the University of Oslo's award for best master thesis on sustainability.
About this seminar
“Global Health Unpacked” is a seminar series that aims to bring together the global health community on a regular basis to critically discuss key debates in Global Health in informal and interactive seminars. Guest speakers (both from the University of Oslo and from other universities) will bring an original perspective to the topic and engage in a conversation with the audience.
With this forum, we also hope to facilitate exchanges and collaborations between global health researchers and students present in Oslo and foster interdisciplinary research. “Global Health Unpacked” is jointly organized by the research group Global Health Politics, Centre for Development and the Environment and the UiO Centre for Global Health.