Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Salla Sariola, University of Helsinki,
- Second opponent: Research Director Mathieu Quet, Ceped, Université Paris Cité,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Jan Frich, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Eivind Engebretsen, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Anne Kveim Lie, University of Oslo
Summary
Antibiotics play complex roles in global health. While many still lack access, their massive use has contributed to the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In addition, our supply of these life-saving drugs rests on intricate networks of globalised production and trade.
This thesis explores the production and trade of antibiotics in India's pharmaceutical industry in the context of globalised pharmaceutical geographies and their histories. Situated within the interdisciplinary field of pharmaceutical studies, the thesis draws on perspectives from medical anthropology, history, and science and technology studies, and is based on document and trade data analysis combined with ethnographic fieldwork in India.
The thesis shows how India’s pharmaceutical industry has become a major global supplier of antibiotics, while also grappling with the reliance on China’s industry for the import of antibiotic ingredients, and the environmental challenges accompanying the industrial manufacturing of antibiotics. The thesis demonstrates that, despite major trade tensions, collaboration and competition coexist in the China-India nexus of antibiotic supply chains. The thesis also challenges the often taken-for-granted status of drugs as simply bare chemical molecules, showing how antibiotics take on multiple and sometimes clashing identities depending on the practices, relations and politics in which they are involved.
A key contribution of the thesis is its focus on the environmental aspect of antibiotics and AMR. By analysing the science-policy response to industrial antibiotic pollution and AMR in India, it shows how various uncertainties at the molecular level are used to challenge scientific claims and the imposition of discharge limits. As the forces underlying antibiotic pollution extend beyond the molecular and local scale, the thesis emphasises the need to address the broader global dynamics that shape drug manufacturing and the rise of AMR in environments and beyond.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.