Recorded October 24, 2005
Below is the original description of the event.
This talk addresses the recent emergence of generic drugs in Mexico, currently Latin America’s biggest, and fastest growing, pharmaceutical market. Unlike in Brazil, where antiretrovirals and HIV/AIDS treatment have been the centerpiece of the powerful, state-led generics ‘revolution,’ in Mexico, the promise of cheaper, generic medicines has made its strongest mark in the private sector. This talk will focus on the rapidly growing pharmacy chain, Farmacias de Similares, whose populist nationalism, affiliated laboratories, political movements, health clinics and motto—“The same but cheaper”—have begun to transform the face of health care provision in that country. With the Similares phenomenon firmly in sight, Prof. Hayden will explore the specific contours of Mexico ’s “pharmaceutical publics.”
Cori Hayden is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz in 2000 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Cambridge and the Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies at UC San Diego. Prof. Hayden is the author of When Nature Goes Public: The Making and Unmaking of Bioprospecting in Mexico (Princeton University Press, 2003).