The marketing turn and transoceanic production shift in the pharmaceutical industry (1960-2020)

In the 1950s and 1960s imagery became as much a part of the fabric of drug profiles as chemistry and pharmacology. The circulation of the marketing driven images succeeded in bringing something immaterial to psychotropic drugs like Miltown, Librium and Valium during the ‘happy pill era’: an aura of allure or fantasy, the mysterious fever of the benefit of the new, doing good and no harm to body and mind. Under the guise of physician education, new generations of therapeutic drugs were marketed by the international pharmaceutical industry directly to the community of health professionals through continuing medical education courses and booklet series. All the lubricants for consecutive drug hypes were available, including in the American context the direct-to-consumer advertising of straight-forward fast-relief messages that would fuel the antidepressant blockbuster era of the 1990s. As part of this marketing driven success story of what became known as ‘Big Pharma’ the marketing departments and marketing costs grew exponentially. At the same time in line with other Western industries, the active pharmaceutical ingredients production was relocated to the low-cost countries of India and China in the late 1990s. As I will show this transoceanic production shift would have an disruptive effect on the complex global drug production, distribution and pricing system, dramatically affecting accessibility and affordability of medicines.