| In conceptualising interactions between product champions, cultural enthusiasm and resistance, this research project aims at developing instruments/methodologies to assess the key scientific, economic and societal attributes of the various worlds of drug making and drug taking. The focus will be on articulating the mechanisms associated with three patterns of societal embedding: 1) hype or Seige-cycle, 2) contested embedding, and 3) controversy and stalemate. In addition, the hypothesis is that a fourth, hybrid pattern materializes for drugs that have unexpected side-effects. These long-term patterns and associated mechanisms are studied and analysed with comparative longitudinal case studies of the conjugated careers of specific drugs and related diseases in the period of 1986-2007 (for example Prozac and depression, Imigran and migraine, Interferon beta-1b and multiple sclerosis) The research questions are: 1. What are the most relevant cases to study the conjugated careers of drug and disease in the period of 1986-2007. 2. How do the various worlds of drug making and drug taking in terms of market dynamics, regulation and public acceptance play a role in shaping the conjugated careers of the drugs chosen.in the period 1986-2007? 3. What patterns of societal embedding and what associated mechanisms underlie fore-mentioned conjugated drug-disease careers? 4. How can these patterns and mechanisms inform the development of models to assess the key scientific, economic and societal trust-related attributes of the various worlds of drug making and drug taking? |
