[Ip-health] Reminder: KEI Brown Bag Lunch: "Making Markets for Merit Goods: The Political Economy of Antiretrovirals"

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

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This week KEI will be hosting a brown bag lunch where Professor Joshua
Busby will present his publication on "Making Markets for Merit Goods:
The Political Economy of Antiretrovirals".

When: Friday, December 4, 2009

Time: 12:00-1:30 pm

Location:
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
1621 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20009
Tel +1 202 332 2670

Bring your lunch! We'll provide soft drinks

Please, RSVP to Judit Rius at judit.rius@keionline.org

Background:

"Making Markets for Merit Goods: The Political Economy of
Antiretrovirals"
By Ethan Kapstein and Josh Busby
Working Paper 179 Center for Global Development, August 2009
Available for download here: http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/deta=
il/1422655

Why were AIDS activists successful in putting universal access to
treatment on the international agenda when so many other global
campaigns have either failed or struggled to have much impact? We
focus on: (1) permissive material conditions (2) convergence on a
policy prescription, (3) attributes of the activists and (4) the broad
political support for their cause. In our view, the market for
antiretroviral (ARV) drugs was politically constructed; activists had
to bring the demand and supply sides of the market together through a
variety of tactics and strategies. The idea that motivated the
activists was that ARVs should ideally be =93merit goods,=94 goods that
are available to everyone regardless of income. However, when ARVs
first came on the market, poor people in the developing world lacked
the resources to buy them. Activists successfully lobbied donor
nations to use foreign aid to buy ARVs, and they pressured
pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices, while encouraging
generic firms to enter the market. However, even where a policy enjoys
favorable material conditions=97ie low costs, large benefits,
demonstrated feasibility=97this may not be enough. A clear prescription,
credible messengers, and resonant arguments may be necessary for an
issue to receive adequate political support.

The Speaker:

Joshua Busby is an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs at the LBJ
School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas and a fellow in
the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service as well as a
Crook Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for
International Security and Law. He originally joined the LBJ School
faculty in fall 2006 as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer. Prior to
coming to UT, Dr. Busby was a research fellow at the Center for
Globalization and Governance at Princeton=92s Woodrow Wilson School
(2005-2006), the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
at Harvard=92s JFK School (2004-2005), and the Foreign Policy Studies
program at the Brookings Institution (2003-2004). Busby is a Term
Member in the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Dr. Busby has written extensively on transnational advocacy movements.
His forthcoming book Moral Movements and Foreign Policy (Cambridge
University Press) includes a chapter on the campaign to address the
AIDS crisis in the developing world.