The illicit medicines trade from within : An analysis of the demand and supply sides of the illicit market for lifestyle medicines : dissertation / Rosa Marthe Koenraadt. - Utrecht : Utrecht University, 2018. - (Pompe reeks ; 89). - ISBN 9789462368262. - With Dutch Summary. - De illegale geneesmiddelenhandel van binnenuit : Een analyse van de vraag- en aanbodzijde van de illegale lifestyle geneesmiddelenmarkt
Abstact:
Although the existence of illicit medicines is not new, all sorts of these medicines, ranging from antibiotics to weight loss drugs, antimalarial tablets to steroids, are increasingly traded worldwide. As the illicit medicines market is associated with considerable health risks for its users, it is important to gain extensive criminological insights into this global market. Previous studies have expressed concern regarding a perceived growing degree of criminal organization, but, with a few exceptions, little criminological research has been conducted on the nature and dynamics that actually take place on the supply and demand sides of the illicit pharmaceutical market.
The current thesis aims to engage directly with these perceptions as it fills gaps in the literature, by providing in-depth and empirically grounded theoretical insights on the online and offline trade in illicit pharmaceuticals, with particular reference to lifestyle pharmaceuticals. Trade in the Netherlands and manufacturing in China are taken as extended case studies. The main focus lies on the structure, dynamics and activities of actors on both the demand and supply sides of the illicit medicines market in the Netherlands, and on the production and transnational distribution of illicit medicines in and from China. The central research question of this thesis is: how are actors involved in the illicit medicines trade, and how is the illicit market structured.
Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction and background
Chapter 2 Theoretical perspectives on illicit markets and medicines
Chapter 3 Methodological issues: researching the illicit market for lifestyle medicines
Chapter 4 Trends, prevalence and types of illicit medicines traded in the Netherlands
Chapter 5 Understanding the demand for (illicit) lifestyle medicines
Chapter 6 Retail level of the market: buyers, sellers and trust
Chapter 7 Social organization of the market
Chapter 8 Manufacturing level: a case study on China
Chapter 9 Conclusion
