Marc-André Gagnon
Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration
| Phone: | 613-520-2600 x 1690 |
| Email: | ma.gagnon@carleton.ca |
| Office: | 5201 Richcraft Hall |
| Twitter: | Follow |
BA in Political Science (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Certificate in Economics (Université du Québec à Montréal)
MA in Political Science (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Master of Advanced Studies in Economics (ENS Fontenay/St-Cloud and Université Paris-I Sorbonne)
PhD in Political Science (York University)
Dr. Gagnon’s 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.
I am a political economist, which means that I take 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.
Refereed Journal Articles
- Gagnon, Marc-André and Karena Volesky, 2017. “Merger Mania: Mergers and acquisitions in the generic drug sector from 1995 to 2016”. Globalization and Health 13 (62), August 2017.
- Gagnon, Marc-André. “The role and impact of cost-sharing mechanisms for prescription drug coverage”. Canadian Medical Association Journal 189 (19), May 2017: E680-E681.
- Morgan, Steven G., Marc-André Gagnon, Barbara Mintzes and Joel Lexchin. “A Better Prescription: Advice for a National Strategy on Pharmaceutical Policy in Canada”. Healthcare Policy 12 (1), May 2016.
- “New Drug Prices; Does it Make Any Sense?”. Prescrire International, 24 (162), July 2015: 192-195. (Version française disponible ici)
- O’Brady, Sean, Marc-André Gagnon and Alan Cassels. « Reforming Private Drug Coverage in Canada; Inefficient Drug Benefit Design and the Barriers to Change in Unionized Settings ». Health Policy, Vol. 119 #2, February 2015: 224-31
- Lexchin, Joel and Marc-André Gagnon. « CETA and pharmaceuticals: impact of the trade agreement between Europe and Canada on the costs of prescription drugs ». Globalization and Health, Vol. 10 #30, May 2014.
- “Corruption of Pharmaceutical Markets: Addressing the Misalignment of Financial Incentives and Public Health,” in Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Vol. 41 #3, September 2013: 571-580. Draft version available here.
Reports
- Marc-André Gagnon and Sidney Wolfe. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Medicare Part D pays needlessly high brand-name drug prices compared with other OECD countries and with U.S. government programs. Ottawa/Washington: Carleton University/Public Citizen, July 2015.
- S.G. Morgan, D. Martin, M.-A. Gagnon, B. Mintzes, J. Daw and J. Lexchin, The Future of Drug Coverage in Canada. Vancouver: Pharmaceutical Policy Research Collaboration. July 2015.
- A Roadmap to Rational Pharmacare Policy in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. August 2014. (Version française disponible ici)
Recent Teaching
PADM 5228: Social Policy
PADM 5672: Policy Seminar on Pharmaceutical Policy
PADM 5129: Capstone course
PECO 5061: Methodology of Political Economy
Recent Supervisions
Co-supervision of Adrienne Shnier’s PhD Dissertation (Graduate Program in Health, York University): Medical Education and Financial Conflict of Interest Relationships with the Pharmaceutical Industry in Canada: An Analysis of Four Areas of Medical education. (Completed 2016).
Co-supervision of Mathieu Charbonneau’s PhD Dissertation (Sociology, Carleton University): Insurance Risks as Fictitious Commodities: The Institutional Constitution of Insurance Markets. (Completed 2016).
Supervision of Russel Burgess’ MA Dissertation (Institute of Political Economy): Competition or Liberation? Implications of Labour Automation in the Context of Cognitive Capitalism. (Completed 2016).
Supervision of Jason Dolny’s MA Thesis (Institute of Political Economy): Gramsci and Ghostwriting: Revisiting Medical Journal Conflict of Interest Policies in an Age of Neoliberal Science. (Completed 2014).
Recent Editorships and Academic offices
Fellow with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector, since 2016
Co-lead and researcher for the Rational Therapeutics and Medication Policy Research group, since 2015
Recent Awards and Distinctions
Public Commentary Award, Faculty of Public Affairs, Carleton University, 2015
Ethel Meade Award for Excellence in Healthcare Research, from Ontario Health Coalition, 2014
“Rising Star Award” from the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, 2010
Yumiko Iida Memorial PhD Prize for best dissertation in political science, 2010