The DOI matches its Crossref record; 67 of the 69 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Reformulation Regime in Drug Discovery: Revisiting Polyherbals and Property Rights in the Ayurvedic Industry
Abstract
In so-called traditional medicine in South Asia, substances have not ordinarily been prescribed or consumed in isolation, yet the transformations of compound formulations have been comparatively little studied from any position within anthropology or history. Since the early twentieth century, ayurvedic formulations have often been redesigned to address the biomedical disorders of a new global clientele. This has involved overlapping medical cultures and the creation of heterodox epistemologies, which have then allowed the creation of new “traditional” products that suit the demands of the market. In India, these new formulations fall under the category of “Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicines,” which are distinct from classical, textual (shastric) formulations already in the public domain. Proprietary medicines are the object of specific systems of appropriation and protection, which have not only gained central stage in the country but also influenced international regulatory bodies. This article seeks to explore the way in which the “reformulation regime” has fostered the emergence of alternative models of property rights, and their global acceptance, as well as how, in turn, these new forms of property have today come to drive pharmaceutical innovation itself. By analyzing this “looping effect,” this article sets out prospective avenues to study the industrialization of traditional medicine and the complex interface between regulatory systems, innovation processes, and the market.
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“The company's global turn took place in 1975, much before economic liberalisation, when India's regulatory environment did not support global expansion.”
From Pervious Drugs: Making the Pharmaceutical Object in Techno-Ayurveda (2014) · cites this paper as Pordié and Gaudillière 2014
In the citing paper
“The reformulation regime is a testimony to this, as it feeds the emergence of an autonomous ayurvedic pharmacy that breaks with ayurvedic clinical practice both from a sociological point of view (preparations are no longer made by doctors but by people specialising in medicinal plants and their manipulation) and an epistemic point of view (formulations are ready-to-use mixes for specific”
From Pervious Drugs: Making the Pharmaceutical Object in Techno-Ayurveda (2014) · cites this paper as Pordié and Gaudillière 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Pordié, L., & Gaudillière, J.-P.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Venue
- East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-03-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-79
- ISSN
- 1875-2152 (ISSN-L)
- 1875-2160
- OpenAlex
- W2159960403
- Cited by
- 84
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 10
- FWCI
- 139.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- East Asian Science Technology and Society An International Journal (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Law › Intellectual Property Law
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Herbal Medicine and Trade Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy
- Keywords
- polyherbal formulation, property rights, traditional medicine, pharmaceutical innovation, intellectual property, regulatory regimes, drug discovery, India
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