Good Pharma ─ The Public-Health Model of the Mario Negri Institute

Drawing on key concepts in sociology and management, this history describes a remarkable institute that has elevated medical research and worked out solutions to the troubling practices of commercial pharmaceutical research. Good Pharma is the answer to Goldacre's Bad Pharma, ethical research without commercial distortions that mislead doctors and patients. This extended case history of the Mario Negri Institute describes how a brilliant young researcher, Silvio Garattini, and a boldly imaginative philanthropist, Mario Negri, conceived of an independent, ethics-based research institute to develop better medicines for patients. It may sounds obvious; yet patent-based research usually develops minor variations. This book describe the Institute's influence on founding the WHO Essential Medicines List, nurturing the Cochrane Collaboration, and reforming European regulations to reduce commercial influences and increase transparency. The Mario Negri model for pharmacological research and policy offers an alternative to today's costly, wasteful drug development with few benefits for patients. A revolution is needed.

Donald W. Light is Professor of Comparative Health Policy at Rowan University, USA and has published widely in major medical and sociological journals on ethical as well as sociological issues. Recently, he served as the Lokey Visiting Professor at Stanford University, USA and as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, USA.


Antonio Maturo is Associate Professor of Sociology of Health at Bologna University, Italy and Visiting Professor at Brown University, USA. He has published several books in Italian and he has edited The Medicalization of Life (2009, with P. Conrad) and The Medicine of Emotions and Cognitions (2012, with K. Barker).