In some parts of the world spending on pharmaceuticals is astronomical. In others people do not have access to basic or life-saving drugs. Individuals struggle to afford medications; whole populations are neglected, considered too poor to constitute profitable markets for the development and distribution of necessary drugs. The ethnographies brought together in this timely collection analyze both the dynamics of the burgeoning international pharmaceutical trade and the global inequalities that emerge from and are reinforced by market-driven medicine. Together they demonstrate that questions about who will be treated and who will not filter through every phase of pharmaceutical production, from pre-clinical research to human testing, marketing, distribution, prescription, and consumption. Whether considering how American drug companies seek to create a market for antidepressants in Japan, how Brazil has created a model HIV/Aids prevention and treatment program, or how the urban poor in Delhi understand and access healthcare, these essays illuminate the roles of corporations, governments, NGOs, and individuals in relation to global pharmaceuticals. Some essays show how individual and communal identities are affected by the marketing and availability of medications. Among these are an exploration of how the pharmaceutical industry shapes popular and expert understandings of mental illness in North America and Great Britain. There is also an examination of the agonizing choices facing Ugandan families trying to finance aids treatment. Several essays explore the inner workings of the emerging international pharmaceutical regime. One looks at the expanding quest for clinical research subjects; another at the entwining of science and business interests in the Argentine market for psychotropic medications. By bringing the moral calculations involved in the production and distribution of pharmaceuticals into stark relief, this collection charts urgent new territory for social scientific research.

阿瑟·剋萊曼 (Arthur Kleinman，又名 凱博文)，曾先後擔任哈佛醫學院社會醫學部主任和哈佛大學人類學係主任，現任哈佛研究生院及醫學院終身教授。

萊娜德拉·達斯(Renendra Das)，普林斯頓大學副研究員，曾任印度德裏經濟學院教授。

安妮·洛弗爾(Anne Lovell)，法國國傢衛生研究員高級研究員，《心理健康與社會》主編。

蘇珊·懷特(Susan Wright)，丹麥哥本哈根大學人類學研究所教授。

戴維·希利(David Healy)，英國卡迪夫大學精神病學教授。

貝蒂·柯亞唐多(Betty Kyaddondo)，內科醫生，現任烏乾達艾滋病信息中心醫療官員。