Lise Bjerke

• Bjerke, Lise (2025). Antibiotics in the environment: molecularisation, drug resistance and pharmaceutical pollution in India. BioSocieties. ISSN 1745-8552. 20(3), s. 551–578. doi: 10.1057/s41292-025-00353-6. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Understanding how the environment matters in developing, transmitting and spreading antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become an important concern over the last decade. One concern is how waste from pharmaceutical manufacturing pollutes environments with effluents that contain antibiotics, potentially driving the growth of AMR. There has been a particular interest to address this at pharmaceutical production sites in India, due to the country’s status as one of the world’s largest producers of antibiotics. In this paper, based on document analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, I analyse science-policy responses to pharma-industrial antibiotic effluents and AMR in the environment in India. Paying particular attention to knowledge claims and contestations made by scientists and pharmaceutical industry actors, I demonstrate how various uncertainties emerge due to molecularised understandings of the environment and an emphasis on tracing cause–effect relations at the molecular scale. Contributing to the literature on molecularisation, I further show how the ontological multiplicity of antibiotics adds to the challenge of regulating pollution. Highlighting how antibiotics are situated in uneven geographies of pharmaceutical production and trade, I argue for the need to rethink current molecularised approaches and find alternative ways to approach the problem of industrial pollution and AMR in the environment.

• Zhang, Mingyuan & Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotics “dumped”: Negotiating Pharmaceutical Identities, Properties, and Interests in China–India Trade Disputes. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. ISSN 0745-5194. 37(2), s. 148–163. doi: 10.1111/maq.12757. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract China and India have become major producers of antibiotics, and the world has become highly dependent on them. Since 2000, the competition among Chinese and Indian manufacturers on key antibiotic ingredients has become increasingly intense in a series of trade disputes involving anti‐dumping investigations. Analyzing these trade disputes, we find that they provide a space of communication and contestation where seemingly objective facts about pharmaceutical ingredients are transformed into debatable subjects, which are used and sometimes manipulated by stakeholders of conflicting interests. The disputes reveal entangled configurations and multilayered stakes in the China–India pharmaceutical nexus that often defy polarized national interests. Stakeholders must juggle multiple factors, including public health interests, nationalist sentiments, and corporate profit, in negotiating the national identities and the physical and chemical properties of “standard” pharmaceutical ingredients. The disputes also highlight the coexistence of collaboration and competition among Chinese and Indian stakeholders in global pharmaceutical supply chains. [antibiotics, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), pharmaceutical nexus, dumping, trade disputes, China–India]

• Bjerke, Lise (2022). Antibiotic geographies and access to medicines: Tracing the role of India's pharmaceutical industry in global trade. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 312. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115386. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Access to medicines has become a major concern for countries worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, as pharmaceutical production and trade have been disrupted in the course of the crisis. Antibiotics are one group of medicines where worries about access have been raised. Access to the right antibiotic at the right time is important not only for curing infections of individual patients, but also for curbing antibiotic resistance globally. Reliable pharmaceutical supply is key to ensuring access to medicines. The global supply of generic medicines has over the last decades been transformed by the rise of India's pharmaceutical industry. In this paper, I trace the changing role of this industry for the global export of antibiotics, by mapping and describing changes in Indian antibiotic exports and discussing these in light of historical processes and events. The paper offers a novel approach to analyse global antibiotic trajectories by using international trade data from publicly available resources combined with a secondary literature review. I show that India's pharmaceutical industry today holds a key role as one of the world's biggest exporters of antibiotic medicines, but with an increasing dependency on China as a supplier of antibiotic ingredients. This produces both opportunities and concerns for access to antibiotics globally.

• Fjeld, Heidi E; Grude, Sine; Spjeldnæs, Amanda Hylland; Patel, Davina Kaur; Lie, Anne Helene Kveim & Bjerke, Lise (2021). Fra Asia til Afrika: antibiotikas reiser over det indiske havet. Michael. ISSN 1893-9651. 18. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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• Fjeld, Heidi E; Bjerke, Lise; Spjeldnæs, Amanda Hylland & Grude, Sine (2025). Antibiotics as global objects. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Roundtable

• Bjerke, Lise (2025). Hvordan India ble verdens apotek: En historie om antibiotika, legemiddelindustri og global handel. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2025). Molecularisation of environmental AMR and pharma-industrial antibiotic pollution in India. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise & Zhang, Mingyuan (2023). Sterk konkurranse mellom produsenter av antibiotika i India og Kina. [Internet]. Forskning.no. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotics in lakes and rivers: Exploring the science and regulation of pharma-industrial effluents and environmental AMR in India. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise & Zhang, Mingyuan (2023). Fierce competition between manufacturers of antibiotics in China and India. [Internet]. UiO.no. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotika på reisefot: Indisk legemiddelproduksjon er viktig for verden. 3. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotics and microbes in the water: Collaboration and politics in the science of drug resistance and pharma-industrial effluents in India. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotic geographies and access to medicines: Tracing the role of India in global pharmaceutical trade. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Burri, Ranga Reddy; Banik, Dan; Bjerke, Lise & Kannuri, Nanda Kishore (2023). Promoting sustainable healthcare and India-Africa pharmaceutical trade. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Antibiotics in rivers: Exploring the science and regulation of pharma-industrial pollution and AMR in the environment in India. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Translation between molecularization and situated molecules: The science-policy response to industrial antibiotics pollution and drug-resistant microbes in the environment. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2023). Tracing the global map for antibiotic production and distribution with Lise Bjerke. [Journal]. The Experimentalist. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Valler, Thea Marie & Bjerke, Lise (2022). Asianettverket Annual MA Course 2023. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2022). India er en av verdens største antibiotikaprodusenter. [Internet]. UiO.no. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2022). Antibiotics in rivers: Following the trajectory of effluent limits on pharma-industrial wastewater in India. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Burri, Ranga Reddy; Banik, Dan & Bjerke, Lise (2022). Strengthening India-Africa Cooperation for Promoting Sustainable Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Trade. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2022). Social science perspectives on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2022). Enorm vekst i eksport av antibiotika fra India. [Journal]. Forskning.no. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2021). Medical globalization and antibiotic geographies: Tracing the role of India’s pharmaceutical industry. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2020). How I wrote my MA thesis: What to expect when writing your thesis? (seminar presentation). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2020). Medical globalisation and India’s pharmaceutical industry: New trajectories in the global trade of antibiotics (conference paper). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2020). Generics across the ocean: A framework for exploring South-South antibiotic trajectories (conference paper). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise (2019). What to expect from fieldwork? My experiences from fieldwork in India (seminar presentation). Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Winther, Tanja; Kildal, Charlotte L & Bjerke, Lise (2018). Derfor kan strøm påvirke likestilling. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Bjerke, Lise; Lie, Anne Kveim; Fjeld, Heidi E; Gradmann, Christoph; Roalkvam, Sidsel & Kannuri, Nanda Kishore (2026). Antibiotics and India’s pharmaceutical industry: An exploration of drug production and trade in globalised pharmaceutical geographies. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Antibiotics play complex roles in global health. While many still lack access, their massive use has contributed to the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In addition, our supply of these life-saving drugs rests on intricate networks of globalised production and trade. This thesis explores the production and trade of antibiotics in India's pharmaceutical industry in the context of globalised pharmaceutical geographies and their histories. Situated within the interdisciplinary field of pharmaceutical studies, the thesis draws on perspectives from medical anthropology, history, and science and technology studies, and is based on document and trade data analysis combined with ethnographic fieldwork in India. The thesis shows how India’s pharmaceutical industry has become a major global supplier of antibiotics, while also grappling with the reliance on China’s industry for the import of antibiotic ingredients, and the environmental challenges accompanying the industrial manufacturing of antibiotics. The thesis demonstrates that, despite major trade tensions, collaboration and competition coexist in the China-India nexus of antibiotic supply chains. The thesis also challenges the often taken-for-granted status of drugs as simply bare chemical molecules, showing how antibiotics take on multiple and sometimes clashing identities depending on the practices, relations and politics in which they are involved. A key contribution of the thesis is its focus on the environmental aspect of antibiotics and AMR. By analysing the science-policy response to industrial antibiotic pollution and AMR in India, it shows how various uncertainties at the molecular level are used to challenge scientific claims and the imposition of discharge limits. As the forces underlying antibiotic pollution extend beyond the molecular and local scale, the thesis emphasises the need to address the broader global dynamics that shape drug manufacturing and the rise of AMR in environments and beyond.

• Bjerke, Lise; Torjusen, Marius Lamberg & Ottersen, Trygve (2021). Prosjekt utveier. Veien ut av koronakrisen: Fire fremtidsbilder og fem avgjørende spørsmål. Folkehelseinstituttet. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Hovedbudskap Pandemien har endret Norge og verden på måter vi ennå ikke helt forstår eller har klart å fordøye. Ingen kan si sikkert hvordan pandemien vil utvikle seg fremover og heller ikke hva ringvirkningene av pandemien vil bli. Samtidig kan vi ikke vente. Som samfunn må vi ta beslutninger og handle nå. Her bruker vi systematisk fremtidstenkning – «foresight» – som et bidrag til to diskusjoner som angår alle: Hvordan vil pandemien utvikle seg de neste årene? Og hvordan skal vi håndtere konsekvensene av krisen? Utgangspunktet er mer enn 30 intervjuer med en allsidig gruppe personer, blant annet elever, representanter for studenter og eldre, forskere, leger, ledere, mennesker som har merket pandemien på kroppen og mennesker som kan tenke utradisjonelt om veien videre. Vi presenterer først fire enkle fremtidsbilder for julen 2021 og julen 2025: «Gledelig jul», «Mutert jul», «Gjennombruddet» og «Tilbakeslaget». Deretter belyser vi fem avgjørende spørsmål som handler om pandemiens virkninger på folkehelsen og samfunnet. Hva skjer med tilliten? Blir vi sykere? Hvordan blir den nye hverdagen? Hvordan endrer omverdenen seg? Og sist, men ikke minst: Vil vi lære av denne pandemien?

• Bjerke, Lise (2018). Targeting food insecurity of Indians on the move: Access to food security entitlements among internal migrants in Bangalore. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This thesis is concerned with the food security of low-income, internal migrants in India. Based on a quantitative survey as well as qualitative fieldwork conducted in one of India’s biggest cities, Bangalore, it explores the relationship between internal migration and the access to food of migrant households at their destination of migration. The main research question raised in this thesis is: How does internal migration affect the access to food of migrant households in urban India? In 2013, access to food became a legal right in India. The National Food Security Act reinforced the pledge of the Government to provide food and nutritional security for its citizens. The Act converted into legal entitlements the provisions of some of the largest food security programs in the World; the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and the Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme. Despite food security being high on the political agenda, the Indian state has failed to ensure that every Indian has enough food to eat. One of the most common debates around the short-comings of the food security programs concerns whether their entitlements should be targeted or universal in scope. This thesis contributes to this debate, and aims to provide one piece to the puzzle of paradoxes that surrounds the persistency of food insecurity in India. This thesis shows that internal migrants face exclusion from the targeted food security program at their migration destination, thus affecting their access to food through social support entitlements. It finds that there is a link between migrant status and exclusion from the targeted food security program, while the same is not the case for the universal programs. The thesis argues that the informality and mobility of internal migrants’ livelihoods conflict with the state practices employed in the targeted program, while the mode of delivery used in the universal programs provides better prospects for mediating informality and mobility. Furthermore, it argues that internal migrants’ own agency, their livelihoods, and other non-state influences also are important to consider if we are to understand the outcome of their food security entitlements in different contexts.

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