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The pipeline and the porcupine: alternate metaphors of the physician-industry relationship

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  • Mather, Charles

Abstract

Industry and medicine share a complicated relationship that engenders a considerable degree of controversy. Although they share a relationship, industry and medicine have different perspectives toward their involvement with each other. Industry conceives of medicine as one aspect of the "drug pipeline", a larger set of relationships that is necessary for producing and marketing products. In contrast, select physicians refer to medicine's relationship with industry as "dancing with the porcupine", an inherently difficult and dangerous activity. This paper compares the "pipeline" and "porcupine" metaphors, and draws upon ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted among clinical neuroscientists at a Canadian medical school to further elucidate the perspectives of physicians toward industry and the nature of the physician-industry relationship. The paper argues that the physician-industry relationship is akin to a type of gift-exchange known as a total prestation, and that this form of total prestation is part of a strategy of capital reconversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Mather, Charles, 2005. "The pipeline and the porcupine: alternate metaphors of the physician-industry relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 1323-1334, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:6:p:1323-1334
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Peay, Marilyn Y. & Peay, Edmund R., 1988. "The role of commercial sources in the adoption of a new drug," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 1183-1189, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Susan F Wood & Joanna Podrasky & Meghan A McMonagle & Janani Raveendran & Tyler Bysshe & Alycia Hogenmiller & Adriane Fugh-Berman, 2017. "Influence of pharmaceutical marketing on Medicare prescriptions in the District of Columbia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Sismondo, Sergio, 2008. "How pharmaceutical industry funding affects trial outcomes: Causal structures and responses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1909-1914, May.

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