A world of generics: The manufacturing and circulation of generic medicines worldwide

Etienne Nouguez

Chapter 11 in Handbook of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology Studies, 2026, pp 181-194 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Since the late 1990s generic drugs have spread throughout the world, generating US$407.2 billion in 2022, forecast to reach US$655.8 billion by 2028. These cheaper copies of off-patent medicines have been of growing interest to social science researchers, who have particularly analyzed the struggles between high and low-income countries around drug patenting and its consequences for patient access to treatments and healthcare systems. This chapter proposes to open up a new field of investigation for Science and Technology Studies scholars around two major questions surrounding the manufacturing of generics and biosimilars. It begins by examining the art of copying, defined as a set of knowledge, instruments and material operations aimed at reproducing the qualities of original medicines, carried out by a socio-technical network of actors (manufacturers, regulators, researchers). It then relates this art of copying to a geopolitics of copies, defined as a set of power relations uniting and opposing states and industries at global level around the production and circulation of these copies, with a dialectic between the will to promote the largest access of people to treatments, to develop local industries and to ensure the quality, efficacy, and safety of drugs.

Keywords: Generics and biosimilars; Framing and overflowing; Technology upgrading; Pharmaceutical manufacturing; Pharmaceutical patents; Standards (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035338443
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