Cancer Currencies: Making and Marketing Resources in a First-in-Human Drug Trial in Denmark

Welfare state service delivery is increasingly driven by public-private collaborations and strategies aimed at turning the provision of core welfare services into a profitable business at an international scale. Particularly within cancer treatment development, the cost of medical research is increasing, and many policymakers see partnerships between private and public partners as mandatory to sustain public welfare services. But how do welfare state practices and values intersect with commercial interests as cancer research becomes increasingly entangled with big pharma interests? We explore this question by investigating the collaboration between a public hospital in Denmark and a multi-national pharmaceutical company and the practical work involved in setting up and running early cancer drug trials for personalised medicine. Based on ethnographic research we analyse how competition, investment and exchange practices shape how welfare resources for personalised medicine are defined, produced, and offered. We argue that qualities facilitated by the welfare state – i.e., fast-tracking trial procedures, high-quality data and high compliance of research subjects – become currencies transactable on the global market for drug development.