2005/07/11 by Philip Mirowski, Robert Van Horn · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · #Intellectual Property and Patents #Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy #Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
paper · doi:10.1177/0306312705052103
openalex publication_date 2005/07/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The early 1980s constituted a watershed in science, mainly concerning the extent and nature of globalization and commercialization of scientific research, and its impact upon the university. Considerable debate has arisen about the sources of this transition, but aside from a few lone voices, the scholarly literature has neglected the concurrent rise of the contract research organization (CRO) and its role int he commercialization of scientific research. The CRO warrants wider attention as a modern paradigm of privatized science in the biopharmaceutical sector. In discussing the CRO's technologies, the purposes they pursue, and the legal and policy initiatives that have fostered their rapid rise, we confront the wider implications of the modern regime of commercialized science for the future conduct of scientific research. We identify five areas of innovation: treatment of human subjects, control of disclosure, subjection of research tools to commercialization, redefinition of authorship, and re-engineering the goals of research.