Glocal Pharma ― International Brands and the Imagination of Local Masculinity

An exploration of how global pharmaceutical products are localized - of what happens when they become a€?glocala€? - this book examines the tensions that exist between a global pharmaceutical market and the locally bounded discourses and regulations encountered as markets are created for new drugs in particular contexts. Employing the case study of the emergence, representation and regulation of Viagra in the Swedish market, Glocal Pharma offers analyses of commercial material, medical discourses and legal documents to show how a Swedish, Viagra-consuming subject has been constructed in relation to the drug and how Viagra is imagined in relation to the Swedish man. Engaging with debates about pharmaceuticalization, the authors consider the ways in which new identities are created around drugs, the redefinition of health problems as sits of pharmaceutical treatment and changes in practices of governance to reflect the entrance of pharmaceuticals to the market. With attention to a€?locala€? contexts, it reveals elements in the nexus of pharmaceutcalization that are receptive to cultural elements as new products become embedded in local markets. An empirically informed study of the the ways in which the presence of a drug can alter the concept of a disease and its treatment, understandings of who suffers from it and how to cure it - both locally and internationally - this book will appeal to scholars of sociology and science and technology studies with interests in globalization, pharmaceuticals, gender and the sociology of medicine.

Ericka Johnson is Assistant Director of the Technology and Social Change Division at LinkA?ping University, Sweden and co-editor of Technology and Medical Practice: Blood, Guts and Machines. Ceclia A…sberg is Associate Professor and Head of Gender Studies at LinkA?ping University, Sweden, Ebba SjA?gren is Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting at Stockholm School of Economics. Sweden.