Marc-André Gagnon
Professor
Faculty of Public Affairs
School of Public Policy and Administration
Ottawa, Ontario
ma.gagnon@carleton.ca
Office:
(613) 520-2600 ext. 1690
Expert In
Media Relations
Bio/Research
Gagnon is available to discuss pharmacare and dental care. His empirical research focuses on the political economy of the pharmaceutical sector: business models, innovation policies, corporate influence over medical practices, health and drug insurance regimes.
From a more theoretical s...
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From a more theoretical s...
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
Gagnon is available to discuss pharmacare and dental care. His empirical research focuses on the political economy of the pharmaceutical sector: business models, innovation policies, corporate influence over medical practices, health and drug insurance regimes.
From a more theoretical standpoint, his research analyzes capital accumulation and corporate competition in terms of how firms capitalize not only their productive capacity but also their capacities and their business network powers to influence laws, public policies, culture and socio-institutional settings in order to accrue monopolistic differential gains.
He is a political economist, which means that he takes the power dimension in the economy seriously. Markets do not emerge naturally out of thin air as institutions maximizing social welfare due to the absence of state intervention. Markets are social and political creatures; they are the products of a complex political and regulatory process involving a diversity of agents working at influencing that process according to their interests, and determining the forms and details of each market.
In many markets, the financial incentives are not aligned with the desired social outcomes, creating incentives for dominant actors to obtain net gains at high costs and risks for the rest of the community. The pharmaceutical sector, where profitability depends more on marketing strategies than on therapeutic innovation, is in many ways a poster child of such a market. It is the role of public policy to understand the flaws in each market and find ways to re-align financial incentives and desirable social outcomes.
Click to Shrink <<
From a more theoretical standpoint, his research analyzes capital accumulation and corporate competition in terms of how firms capitalize not only their productive capacity but also their capacities and their business network powers to influence laws, public policies, culture and socio-institutional settings in order to accrue monopolistic differential gains.
He is a political economist, which means that he takes the power dimension in the economy seriously. Markets do not emerge naturally out of thin air as institutions maximizing social welfare due to the absence of state intervention. Markets are social and political creatures; they are the products of a complex political and regulatory process involving a diversity of agents working at influencing that process according to their interests, and determining the forms and details of each market.
In many markets, the financial incentives are not aligned with the desired social outcomes, creating incentives for dominant actors to obtain net gains at high costs and risks for the rest of the community. The pharmaceutical sector, where profitability depends more on marketing strategies than on therapeutic innovation, is in many ways a poster child of such a market. It is the role of public policy to understand the flaws in each market and find ways to re-align financial incentives and desirable social outcomes.
Click to Shrink <<
Media Appearances
Gagnon discusses the fight to lower drug prices, CBC, May 12, 2022
Gagnon discusses the progress we are making on pharmacare in Canada, Hill Times, February 7, 2022
Gagnon discusses the White House plan to send 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada, CBC, March 18, 2021
Gagnon discusses whether the global vaccine race was inevitable? Politico, February 3, 2021
Gagnon writes about reviewing the guidelines governing Canadian doctors’ relationships with pharma companies, The Conversation, December 12, 2020
Gagnon writes about Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine task force needs better transparency, The Conversation, October 8, 2020