Pharmaceutical experimentation in human beings in Brazil configures a growing field of articulation of interests of diverse national and international actors. Companies in the trial industry recognize in Brazil’s population a great racial diversity of peop le who are ill and without access to adequate treatment as a factor of interest for their investments in the country. National public authorities and Brazilian researchers, in turn, present clinical research as a way to provide free and early access to hea lth technologies for the population. In this paper, I discuss the associations between racial categorizations, poor access to health and opportunities for experimentation, and the characterization of these global enterprises as a business and a gift. I als o reflect on how clinical studies articulate contemporary biopolitics and necropolitics by capitalizing on lethal living conditions of Brazilian subjects for the development of health biotechnologies.
Pharmaceutical experimentation in human beings in Brazil configures a growing
field of articulation of interests of diverse national and international actors. Companies in
the trial industry recognize in Brazil’s population a great racial diversity of peop
le who are ill
and without access to adequate treatment as a factor of interest for their investments in the
country. National public authorities and Brazilian researchers, in turn, present clinical
research as a way to provide free and early access to hea
lth technologies for the population.
In this paper, I discuss the associations between racial categorizations, poor access to health
and opportunities for experimentation, and the characterization of these global enterprises
as a business and a gift. I als
o reflect on how clinical studies articulate contemporary
biopolitics and necropolitics by capitalizing on lethal living conditions of Brazilian subjects
for the development of health biotechnologies.
Keywords:
Clinical trials. Body.
Value.
1
A pesquisa que fundamenta este trabalho foi financiada com recursos de bolsa de doutorado do Conselho
Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (CNPq). Agradeço à Soraya Fleischer e aos colegas do grupo de
orientação coletiva pelos comentários e contribuiçõe
s para melhoramento de versões preliminares. Igualmente,
agradeço aos coordenadores do Grupo de Trabalho “Antropologia e Tecnociência: teorias, métodos e
perspectivas” da 31
a
Reunião Brasileira de Antropologia, Fabíola Rohden e Marko Monteiro, bem como à
d
ebatedora, Jane Russo, e colegas participantes pela oportunidade de apresentação de versão preliminar do
trabalho e pelos comentários e sugestões generosamente feitos ao texto. Por fim, agradeço aos pareceristas
anônimos pelas excelentes possibilidades de
engajamento reflexivo e crítico e potencialização dos argumentos
desenvolvidos
