Arthur Daemmrich is an assistant professor in the Business, Government and the International Economy Unit and a faculty member of the HBS Healthcare Initiative. His research analyzes managerial and public policy dilemmas that arise for firms and regulators as they seek to control health and environmental risks associated with innovative products and services. Daemmrich has worked on regulation, innovation policy, and international business, with a particular focus on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical industries.

Daemmrich has published in interdisciplinary scholarly journals and the trade press. His first book, Pharmacopolitics (2004), compares drug regulation in the United States and Germany by analyzing regulatory laws, clinical trial methods, and post-market monitoring in the two countries. His edited volume, Perspectives on Risk and Regulation: The FDA at 100 (2007) includes contributions from FDA officials and industry leaders and identifies key trends in the regulation of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, and dietary supplements. Daemmrich is currently writing a book comparing the regulation of the chemical industry in the United States and Europe. Tentatively titled, Bodies at Risk: Chemicals, Testing, and Regulation in the United States and European Union, the book has an explicit focus on testing programs and will advance our understanding of why the U.S. and EU are adopting different approaches to identifying and managing risks associated with commodity chemicals, despite similar test methods, industry structures, and pro-regulatory pressure from non-governmental organizations. The project also is revealing that new chemical testing programs challenge traditional product-by-product regulatory approaches differently in the United States and Europe. Resolving the uncertainty generated by test programs will involve the design of novel institutions at the interface of business and government.

Presently, Daemmrich is initiating a new research project into innovation and regulation of biomedical information, focused on electronic medical records and accountable care systems. Healthcare technologies designed with the intention of improving patient care through greater information gathering and analysis will confront profound questions concerning their relationship to privacy, intellectual property, and consumer choice. Broadly, this research seeks to analyze how different national histories and policies concerning privacy and the regulation of corporate and government use of biomedical data will affect health insurance, care delivery, and biopharmaceutical innovation in the future.

Before joining the HBS faculty in 2007, Daemmrich was the founding director of the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, where he led a group carrying out theoretical and applied work on innovation, entrepreneurship, and scientific and industrial infrastructure. He holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University and a B.A. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

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