Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Patents

Sherry S. Marcellin, London School of Economics, UK

'This authoritative study gives us new insights on 'who gets what' in international trade decision-making and the capacity of even the politically weakest parts of the Global South to generate resistance despite the power of the transnational drug industry. The deployment of Cox's historical structures framework provides a lens to examine the role social, cultural and economic forces play in constituting and reconstituting the prevailing order.' Wyn Grant, University of Warwick. UK 'The book provide a compelling and analytically sound explanation of the powers of the transnational pharmaceutical industry in the context of international trade relations... The book is an intellectually engaging exposé of the elaborate matrix of power behind negotiations within the WTO. It provides a strategic window on how the developing world can, and should, confront the might of the transnational drug industry.' New Agenda

• Contents: Introduction; Explaining 'who gets what' in international trade decision-making; North/South controversies in the TRIPS negotiations: between hegemony and domination?; Consensus formation in the TRIPS negotiations: agendas, agents and turning points; Legitimacy and the TRIPS agreement: globalised law as 'consent without consent'; The post-TRIPS context and the intensification of a contested terrain: the rise of the African Group (AG) at the WTO?; Conclusion; List of interviewees; References; Index.