Abstract
This Perspective paper explores recent moves seen in many countries toward accelerating the speed at which biomedical innovation can be delivered to the clinic. It discusses the drivers behind this and the rationale for it, illustrating this briefly in the field of regenerative medicine. It argues that the process reconfigures present/future relations, especially in terms of the relationship between different forms of evidence and risk calculations. The regulatory/innovation relationship is, as a result, being rewritten. Paradoxically, the moves toward acceleration are less to do with the arrival of a more streamlined evaluation system that selects for scientifically robust technologies ready for “the market.” In contrast, it reflects the growing complexity of innovation itself: whereas Latour (1987) had argued that “science-in the-making” was backstage in contrast to “ready-made science,” the former is now very visible. This in turn has generated two other parallel processes—“regulation-in-the-making” and “risk-in-the-making.” Such shifts can be seen in the field of regenerative medicine. The paper asks how best to engage with the move toward acceleration and thereby the future oversight of innovation.
Highlights
Andrew Webster*Reviewed by: Niki Vermeulen, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Martyn Pickersgill, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
The Research Topic for this special issue of Frontiers in Sociology asks us to consider how technology and the expertise on which it is based frame questions of risk and decision-making at different levels of the health system, both “upstream” and “downstream” in the innovation process
On the face of it, this is something of a paradox, since one might expect that the more complex and uncertain the science the slower one should go in moving toward its application. This paradox can be resolved by rethinking how science is “made” today and how this in turn is producing a new way of making regulation itself
Summary
Reviewed by: Niki Vermeulen, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Martyn Pickersgill, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Medical Sociology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sociology This Perspective paper explores recent moves seen in many countries toward accelerating the speed at which biomedical innovation can be delivered to the clinic. It discusses the drivers behind this and the rationale for it, illustrating this briefly in the field of regenerative medicine. The moves toward acceleration are less to do with the arrival of a more streamlined evaluation system that selects for scientifically robust technologies ready for “the market.” It reflects the growing complexity of innovation itself: whereas Latour (1987) had argued that “science-in the-making” was backstage in contrast to “ready-made science,” the former is very visible. The paper asks how best to engage with the move toward acceleration and thereby the future oversight of innovation
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