The case of the spurious drug kingpin: Shifting pills in Chennai

The public lecture by Dr. Sarah Hodges, organised by the Forum for Medical Ethics Society with the Centre for Law and Society, School of Law, and Constitutional Governance, Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, eSocial Sciences (eSS),Mumbai critically re-examined our collective common sense about fake drugs and global health, as well as the politics of health in colonial and postcolonial India. Her talk explored issues of commodification of drugs, lack of transparency, testing of drugs for quality and safety, and the role that larger pharmaceutical market and neoliberal policies play in deciding the quality of drugs. The discussion that followed Dr. Hodges’ talk encouraged the participants to look at larger issues related to drug procurement, public health enforcement bureaucracy and its relationship with pharma industry, as well as to think about the issue of drug quality and the different terminologies used to describe the quality and safety of drugs - spurious, illegal, fake, sub-standard, counterfeit, falsified, and sub-standard. The talk was held on March 19, 2019 at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.