ABSTRACT
In Benin, Ghana, and Cambodia, consumers and distributers categorize the available pharmaceuticals and classify them according to a subjective scale, ranking them from highest to lowest in value. Based on the product's supposed geographical origin, packaging, and price, this categorization appears to be influenced by the country's colonial and more recent history as well as by the characteristics of local, regional, and global pharmaceutical production. These subjective perceptions of medicines have an impact on how individuals purchase and use pharmaceuticals. They also provide information on how pharmaceutical markets function. Distributors and producers develop economic “niches” through which they identify their clientele. Individuals do not have access to a homogenous pharmaceutical supply; rather, this supply is based on their socioeconomic status and where they live. Thus, a drug appears to be a commodity like any other, whose marketing requires strategies that single out a product and constructs “attachments” in line with consumers' subjectivities. Along with the certified objective characteristics of products, the subjective quality of medicines structures economic activity and constructs a hierarchy for pharmaceutical markets.
