Upcoming Events

UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School is delighted to host the Laurence Crowley Lecture 2026.  The lecture will take place on-campus at UCD Smurfit School on 19th January from 6.30pm - 7.30pm. Registration is from 6pm with refreshments.  The event will be followed by a wine and canapes reception. 

Lecture Title:  Peak Pharma - is it time to rethink our pharmaceutical innovation system?

REGISTER HERE

	Each year UCD Smurfit School hosts the annual Laurence Crowley Lecture Series. Running since 2014, this year's lecture features Professor Susi Geiger who will speak about key insights from her newly published book.

Overview:

In this talk, Prof Susi Geiger will present key insights from her just-published book entitled "Peak Pharma: Toward a New Political Economy of Health", Oxford University Press. Recent scientific developments in the pharmaceutical sector have fuelled rapid price increases of medical therapies. Broader advancements, including AI and data-driven healthcare, too have started to reshape the contours of pharmaceutical innovation and organization. Many of these shifts are likely to have very positive consequences for patients, but they also risk entrenching a highly privatized system of health that may be out of reach for many and that may even threaten the social contract on which our health systems are built. On this background, Prof Geiger will ask provocative questions around whether our current innovation and patent system is still fit for purpose, or whether we have to rethink it from the ground up.

Biography:

Prof Geiger is a Full Professor of Markets, Organisations and Society. A  leading international expert on pharmaceutical and digital markets, she has over 80 journal articles and several books on the topics. Prof Geiger is a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies, a European Research Council Ambassador, and an access to medicines activist. She is a frequent media contributor on issues surrounding access to medicines, pharmaceutical pricing, transparency and intellectual property. She has held significant research and innovation grants in the past and was the Vice-Dean for Research, Innovation and Impact at the College of Business. She was also an invited visiting fellow at leading global institutions such as UC Berkeley, SciencesPo Paris, Weizenbaum Institute, Stockholm School of Economics, University of Copenhagen, University of Vienna, and many others.