E-DRUG: Coca-Cola and Global Fund to bring medicines to remote areas (7)
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Dear Douglas and E-druggers,
Douglas said: "I found it interesting that some
days after the original posting of the story
about Coca-Cola helping to distribute medicines
through/with the Global Fund that no-one has
written in to either congratulate or condemn the partnership."
This partnership has been discussed on the forum
HIFA2015 (Healthcare Information For All by
2015). Some have congratulated and some have condemned.
Here are examples:
"I find this project commendable! By leveraging &
learning about Coke's supply chain, the project
can be taken a notch higher by developing a
similar open source supply chain management
information system at a negligible cost / very
small fraction of what Coke has invested. It is
time that we learn lessons from the successes of
the corporate business world instead of trying to
re-invent the wheel whenever it comes to issues of healthcare and innovation."
HIFA2015 member, Kenya
"What Coca-cola is doing is just whitewashing and
it is not acceptable that they exploit people and
their environments and then 'give something back'
just because it is good publicity. Coke do not
have some kind of magical supply chain, they have
a lot of money and they ruthlessly push their
products and displace other products, regardless
of the effect this has on people's household
spending, the economy, the environment, or
anything else. Here in Tanzania, Coke bought the
largest selling water because their bottled water
couldn't come close to sales of Kilimanjaro
water. People here are allowed to believe that
bottled water is the only substitute, rather than
lobbying for the millions of dollars in aid money
that should be spent on safe water and sanitation
to actually be spent on that. Clean water and
sanitation are affordable, costing a fraction per
head what bottled water costs."
HIFA2015 member, Tanzania
While eDrug is primarily about availability and
use of medicines, HIFA2015 is primarily about
availability and use of healthcare knowledge.
HIFA2015 regularly encourages members to join
eDrug.
This discussion is of particular interest
to HIFA2015, not only because availability of
medicines and healthcare knowledge are both
fundamental to empower providers to deliver care;
but also because of the overlapping issue of
rational use of drugs and access to unbiased
information on drug prescribing. I have written
to the Coca-Cola partnership to make enquiries
about whether and how this issue has been
addressed in the context of the mass drug distribution.
I invite e-druggers with an interest in
availability and use of healthcare knowledge
(including access to unbiased information on drug
prescribing) to join HIFA2015 (www.hifa2015.org)
and we look forward to continuing collaboration with e-Drug.
With thanks,
Neil Pakenham-Walsh
neil.pakenham-walsh@ghi-net.org
HIFA2015 profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the
coordinator of the HIFA2015 campaign and
co-director of the Global Healthcare Information
Network. He is also currently chair of the
Dgroups Foundation, a partnership of 18
international development organisations promoting
dialogue for development. He started his career
as a hospital doctor in the UK, and has clinical
experience in rural Ecuador and Peru. For the
last 20 years he has been committed to the global
challenge of improving the availability and use
of relevant, reliable healthcare information for
health workers and citizens in low- and
middle-income countries. He is particularly
interested in the potential of inclusive,
interdisciplinary communication platforms to help
address global health and international
development challenges. He has worked with the
World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust,
Medicine Digest and INASP (International Network
for the Availability of Scientific Publications).
He is based near Oxford, UK.
<http://www.hifa2015.org/>www\.hifa2015\.org neil.pakenham-walsh AT ghi-net.org