ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes a specific business group as a global institution, namely pharmaceutical companies. The global pharmaceutical industry is divided between firms developing new drugs and those producing generic versions of already existing drugs. According to Matheson, pharmas activities are part of the broader dispositive of institutions, enterprises, regulations and constituencies within which medical-scientific knowledge is generated. The high level of drug prices has attracted considerable criticism not only in the United States but also in other high-income countries (HICs). Humanitarian organizations, like Doctors without Borders, drew attention to the fact that high prices for new medicines prevented many people in LMICs from accessing treatment. Robert Dahl and Charles Lindblom point out that capitalist societies have delegated the task of resource mobilization largely to business firms. Economic theories of intellectual property (IP) argue that periods of market exclusivity provide an incentive for companies to undertake the costs and efforts associated with innovation.
