In this episode of Medicine and the Healing Arts, hosts Profs. Michael Stanley-Baker and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim speak with Prof. Kathryn Ibata-Arens about pandemic medicine, pharmaceutical innovation, traditional medicines and the politics of access to care.
Prof. Aarons is a political scientist whose work explores biomedical innovation, entrepreneurship and science and technology policy across Japan, China, India and beyond. Her book Pandemic Medicine: Why the Global Innovation System is Broken and How We Can Fix It examines the business and politics of global health, asking why the current system produces enormous profits for some while failing to deliver equitable access to essential medicines for many.
The conversation begins with Prof. Aarons’ own journey into the study of medicine, innovation and political economy. She reflects on her experiences as a Japanese American conducting research in Japan, where Kampo and other traditional medicines are integrated into everyday healthcare, and on a life-changing encounter in China with Dr. Liu, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor whose intervention during her husband’s cancer treatment became one of the seeds for Pandemic Medicine.
Together, Michael, Ronit and Kathryn discuss the place of traditional and plant-based medicines in global health, and the ways in which these forms of knowledge are often excluded, undervalued or absorbed into pharmaceutical systems. They explore the role of patents, intellectual property, vaccine nationalism, evergreening and the global innovation system, asking who gets to own medical knowledge and who benefits when healing becomes a source of profit.
The episode also turns to biodiversity, medicinal plants and the future of biopharmaceuticals. Kathryn reflects on the risks of overharvesting, extinction and the loss of traditional medical expertise, while also considering the promise and danger of new technologies such as digital sequence information, biologics and AI-assisted drug discovery.
At the heart of the episode is a question that runs throughout the series: what would it mean to think of medicine not only as an industry, but as a common good? How might scholars, practitioners, policy makers, communities and companies imagine more ethical systems for sharing knowledge, protecting biodiversity and supporting human flourishing?
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Links and resources:
Medicine and the Healing Arts pillar, MIT Global Humanities: https://comparativeglobalhumanities.mit.edu/pillars/healing-arts-and-human-well-being/
Prof. Kathryn Ibata-Arens: https://www.kathrynibataarens.com/
Ibata-Arens, Kathryn C. Pandemic Medicine: Why the Global Innovation System Is Broken, and How We Can Fix It. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2021. https://www.rienner.com/title/Pandemic_Medicine_Why_the_Global_Innovation_System_Is_Broken_and_How_We_Can_Fix_It
Typology of Innovation System Architectures (TISA) framework: See Pandemic Medicine, Chapter 1.
Ibata-Arens, Kathryn C. Beyond Technonationalism: Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Asia. Stanford University Press, 2019. https://academic.oup.com/stanford-scholarship-online/book/31573
China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences: https://en.cacms.ac.cn/
Tu Youyou and the discovery of artemisinin: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/facts/
On the regulation of Kampo medicine in Japan: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25043783/
Nelson Mandela, South Africa and the 1998 pharmaceutical companies lawsuit: https://msfaccess.org/1998-big-pharma-versus-nelson-mandela
Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing: https://www.cbd.int/abs
Max Planck–NTU Centre for Biocultural Worlding: https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/researchs/max-planck-ntu-singapore-centre-for-biocultural-worlding/
Resources available for download on asianmedicinezone.com:
Diagram showing Typology of Innovation System Architectures (TISA) framework
Ibata-Arens, Kathryn C. Pandemic Medicine: Why the Global Innovation System Is Broken, and How We Can Fix It. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2021 (excerpt).
Ibata-Arens, Kathryn C. Beyond Technonationalism: Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Asia. Stanford University Press, 2019 (chapter 1).
