Why Transparency Can’t Guarantee Market Justice: The Case of Pharmaceuticals

Venue: Violet Laidlaw Room, Chrystal Macmillan Building, University of Edinburgh

Registration: Eventbrite

Abstract: The controversies surrounding the heavily redacted contracts between the European Commission and COVID-19 vaccine producers have highlighted ‘transparency’ as a hotly debated concept in the European pharmaceutical market, but calls for more transparency are also heard frequently in other markets, including, most recently, in those involving AI technologies. In this talk, I critically interrogate the notion of transparency, as mobilized by diverse market organizers and contesters. Through the example of the pharmaceutical market, I demonstrate what the variable meanings and devisings of transparency in that market has and has not achieved in making medicines more accessible. With this, I shed light on how struggles over the definition of transparency play a crucial role in the organization of markets. I also discuss why engaging in controversies over transparency has become increasingly important for those contesting the market status quo in a post-political context, emphasizing the ‘not-so-post-political’ potential of these debates.

Bio: Susi Geiger is a Full Professor of Markets, Organizations and Society at University College Dublin, Ireland. Prof Geiger’s expertise lies in the organization of markets, with a particular focus on pharmaceutical and data markets. Her current research focuses on issues of distributive justice and the collective good in these markets, for instance in issues of assetisation, patenting, and access to medicines. She was recently appointed as a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group in pharmaceutical pricing policies. She has just completed an ERC Consolidator Grant on market failures in pharmaceutical markets and held other prestigious grants in the past, including an EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship on digital health. Her work has been published widely in Organization Studies, Research Policy, Journal of Management Studies, Big Data & Society, Social Science & Medicine, Economy & Society, Journal of Cultural Economy, and many others. Her latest monograph entitled “Peak Pharma” will be published in early 2025 at Oxford University Press, and an edited volume entitled “Market Studies: Mapping, Theorizing and Impacting Market Action” is forthcoming in September 2024 at Cambridge University Press.