A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Global Value Networks and the Chinese Pharmaceutical Market

I wrote this paper for my International Economics course (ECON 382). It focuses on the problems that may arise in global value chains, specifically in regards to the production of prescription drugs. China is one of the largest producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (the things that make medicines work) in the world, as such its market has a large impact on drug safety and quality in our increasingly globalized world.

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My Chinese studies played a role in my choice of topic for this paper. The issue was actually something I became aware of after reading a news article in chinese about the contamination of infant formula in China. This issue made me curious about how the trade of  health related items might be influenced by increasingly complex trade networks.