The Open Pharma Movement: Social Action to ‘Open’ Drug Research and Its Implications for Health

Abstract

Concerns over the complexity and costs of drug development have led some to consider whether practices of open science should be extended to pharmaceuticals, a space known for entrenched intellectual property regimes. In this article, I trace the emergence of collective action to apply open science to the research and making of drugs, an area I call open pharma. Drawing on in-depth interviews with open pharma leaders and document analysis of journal articles, organizational policies, and websites, I show that open pharma resembles other scientific/intellectual movements in developing new research practices and transmitting new ideas for sharing data. At the same time, the sociotechnical space of pharmaceuticals is deeply entwined in capitalist political economic structures (legal, regulatory, and financial markets) that shape how actors frame and organize their work. I identify key narratives that actors use to frame the movement and mobilize others, often drawing on market logics. I illustrate the active building and institutionalizing of open pharma infrastructure through the establishment of organizations and open science policies. And I describe structural barriers to open pharma in universities with publishing and commercialization imperatives—which are frequently translated into patent imperatives. ‘Open’ is often defined and operationalized in particular ways, prioritizing public data sharing of early research (which may later be privatized) over such interventions as public clinical trials and commercialization, raising the question of where, when, and for whom open pharma is beneficial.