Browse Hierarchy IPH6109: Medicines and Pharmaceutical Markets

The module considers drug discovery and the forms and stages of clinical trials. Examples will be given of the influence of networks of public-private partnership on drug approvals. A further focus will be on the regulation of medicines and how patterns of national and regional pharmaceutical production and supply are affected by international regulation such as TRIPS, TTIP and international institutions such as the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The module will also give a comparative overview of national regulatory standards for the production, quality control, distribution, prescribing of medicines, and systems of pharmacovigilance. It will also cover issues related to access to medicine and identify areas in which the market has failed to meet global health needs. For example no new drugs have been developed since the 1950s for `neglected diseases¿ such as chagas in Latin America and leishmaniasis in Africa, and current drugs for these diseases are prohibitively expensive; at the same time infectious disease in poorer societies remains untreated, and the global market for anti-depressants has grown. The module will be assessed by an essay that will be linked to a 15 minute formative presentation that will take place during the seminar time.