Zvonareva, Olga | Russia

Olga Zvonareva has background in Global Health from Maastricht University. In 2012, after working as an associate researcher in the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, she was appointed as research fellow at the Department of Health, Ethics and Society, Maastricht University. Her research interests are in Sociology of biomedicine and public health, Biomedical knowledge production, Science and technology studies, Innovation studies, and Bioethics. To date Olga’s research has mostly focused on processes and dynamics of innovation in biomedicine. Currently she investigates social embeddedness of drug research and development in Russia; her recent research project looked at globalising clinical trials enterprise and what it takes to make trials "work" in new locations.  Apart from research, from 2015 Olga is involved as a work package leader in a collaborative project “Bridging Innovations, Health and Societies: Educational Capacity Building in Eastern European Neighbouring Areas/BIHSENA ”. This project was born out of international conference series “Social Sciences and Medical Innovations ”, which Olga co-organises.

Project at IAS-STS: Pharmapolitics: drugs, markets and nation-building in the Russian Federation

My project studies how developments in pharmaceutical science and technology in the post-communist Russia are related to the political processes of (re)building the nation. For instance, in 2009 the Strategy for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Russian Federation till 2020 (Pharma2020) was adopted by the country Ministry of Industry and Trade. One of the main aims of Pharma2020 is to boost the development and production of innovative drugs in Russia. Formulation and implementation of Pharma2020 has become an attempt to harvest the potential of pharmaceutical innovation in Russia, while simultaneously enacting a particular mode of relationship between pharmaceutical technoscience, state and society. My research, thus, asks, how do politics and pharmaceutical science and technology relate to each other in Russia and what does this mean for governance of drug innovation?

Globally, drugs occupy a special place in the technoscientific arena. The reasons include their immediate connection to public health and wellbeing. New pharmaceuticals are also associated with vast economic profits generated by the industry globally and hold promises of better futures, where people, whose health needs are met, live better and more productive lives. Specifically in Russia, studying relations between drug R&D and politics offers an opportunity to advance our understanding of workings of science and politics. This is because, with the few exceptions, recent studies of entwinements of technoscience with nationhood and politics have focused on established liberal democracies and not much is known in this regard about other societies.

 

Selected Publications

Forthcoming  Zvonareva O., Engel N., Kutishenko N., Horstman K. (Re)configuring research value: international commercial clinical trials in the Russian Federation. BioSocieties

Zvonareva O., Kutishenko N., Kulikov E., Martsevich S. (2015) Risks and benefits of trial participation: a qualitative study of participants’ perspectives in Russia. Clinical Trials, 12(6): 646-53

Zvonareva O., Engel N., Martsevich S., de Wert G., Horstman K. (2015) International clinical trials, cardiovascular disease and treatment options in the Russian Federation: Research and treatment in practice. Social Science and Medicine, 128, 255-262

Zvonareva O., Akrong L. (2015/online 2014) Developing clinical research relationships: Views from within. Developing World Bioethics, 15(3): 257-66

Zvonareva O, Engel N, Dhai A, Berghmans R, Ross E, Krumeich A. (2015/online 2013) Engaging diverse social and cultural worlds: Perspectives on benefits in international clinical research from South African communities. Developing World Bioethics, 15(1): 8-17