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Social Studies of Science, Vol. 35, No. 4, 503-548 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312705052103

The Contract Research Organization and the Commercialization of Scientific Research

Philip Mirowski

Reilly Center, University of Notre Dame, Mirowski.1{at}nd.edu

Robert Van Horn

University of Notre Dame, rvanhorn{at}nd.edu

The early 1980s constituted a watershed in science, mainly concerning the extent and nature of globalization and commercialization of scientific research, and its impact upon the university. Considerable debate has arisen about the sources of this transition, but aside from a few lone voices, the scholarly literature has neglected the concurrent rise of the contract research organization (CRO) and its role in the commercialization of scientific research. The CRO warrants wider attention as a modern paradigm of privatized science in the biopharmaceutical sector. In discussing the CRO’s technologies, the purposes they pursue, and the legal and policy initiatives that have fostered their rapid rise, we confront the wider implications of the modern regime of commercialized science for the future conduct of scientific research. We identify five areas of innovation: treatment of human subjects, control of disclosure, subjection of research tools to commercialization, redefinition of authorship, and re-engineering the goals of research.

Key Words: commercialization of science • contract research organization • ghost authorship • globalization of research • intellectual property • new economics of science


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