E-DRUG: Coca-Cola and Global Fund to bring medicines to remote areas (12)
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Dear all
Just to pique minds little more on the conflict of interest with
Coca-Cola, I direct you to an article by Reuters as part of its
investigation into the influence of Big Food on WHO that talks about how
PAHO (WHO in the Americas) is taking funding from food and nutrition
companies.
Ethical issues are different when dealing at a policy level
compared to dealing at a more technical level, but they are still
present (non-communicable diseases are on the rise due to unhealthy
diets, including too many sugary drinks, tooth decay contributes to
morbidity, often overlooked (it is the leading cause of school
absenteeism in the Philippines - National Oral Health Survey 2006).
Is it right for health services to partner with companies that contribute
to/cause the problem? Others might argue that this is an appropriate
response - even that they should be taxed for revenue to address
problems they contribute to (so-called 'sin' taxes) rather than being
allowed to gain honours as part of corporate social responsibility
programs that will help them to grow their business and cause more
morbidity. But when one is short of funds....an ethical dilemma can result.
I won't copy the whole article here since it is quite long (my apologies
to colleagues without internet access) but I have pasted the opening
paragraphs below (copied as Fair Use). It makes interesting reading.
Regards
Douglas
--
Douglas Ball
Pharmaceutical consultant
Public Health and Development
E-mail: douglasball[AT]yahoo.co.uk
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-obesity-who-industry-idUSBRE89I0K620121019
[Please fix URL in browser if broken]
Special Report: Food, beverage industry pays for seat at health-policy table
By Duff Wilson and Adam Kerlin
Geneva, Switzerland | Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:37am BST
(Reuters) - As the world's foremost health agency, the World Health
Organization bills itself as an impartial advocate working on behalf of
194 member nations.
But to fight those diseases in Mexico, the nation with the world's
highest rate of obese and overweight adults, a Reuters investigation
found that WHO's regional office has turned to the very companies whose
sugary drinks and salty foods are linked to many of the maladies it's
trying to prevent.
The office, the Pan American Health Organization, not only is relying on
the food and beverage industry for advice on how to fight obesity. For
the first time in its 110-year history, it has taken hundreds of
thousands of dollars in money from the industry.
Accepting industry funding goes against WHO's worldwide policies. Its
Geneva headquarters and five other regional offices have been prohibited
from accepting money from the food and soda industries, among others.
"If such conflicts of interest were perceived to exist, or actually
existed, this would jeopardize WHO's ability to set globally recognized
and respected standards and guidelines," said spokesman Gregory Härtl.
But the Pan American office - known as PAHO, based in Washington and
founded 46 years before it was affiliated with WHO in 1948 - had
different standards allowing the business donations.
Even so, not until this February did PAHO begin taking industry money,
Reuters found: $50,000 from Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage
company; $150,000 from Nestle, the world's largest food company; and
$150,000 from Unilever, a British-Dutch food conglomerate whose brands
include Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Popsicles.
The recent infusion of corporate cash is the most pointed example to
date of how WHO is approaching its battle against chronic disease.
Increasingly, it is relying on what it calls "partnerships" with
industry, opting to enter into alliances with food and beverage
companies rather than maintain strict neutrality. The strategy differs
dramatically from WHO's approach to interacting with the tobacco
industry - companies with which it is unwilling to partner.
The decision appears to stem in part from necessity.
Despite being tasked a year ago by the U.N. to direct the attack on what
both groups now call a "global epidemic," WHO has cut its own funding
for chronic disease programs by 20 percent since 2010 - an even bigger
decline than for the agency as a whole. These diseases cause 63 percent
of premature deaths worldwide, but the WHO department that leads the
effort to fight them receives 6 percent of the agency's budget.
The industry's cash donations, which have not been previously reported,
were described by Irene Klinger, a senior adviser for partnerships in
PAHO, as "a new way of doing business." She compared the closer
cooperation with that of a couple who needs to discuss marital problems.
She said PAHO spends about $30 million a year to fight chronic diseases.
But amid WHO's budget cuts, Klinger said, the organization needed
industry "money to make this happen."
Mexicans drink far more Coke than citizens of any other nation. But even
as Coca-Cola denies that soda causes obesity, it says it is committed to
solving the health crisis. The Atlanta-based company has placed a top
official on the steering board for WHO's Pan American Forum for Action
on Non-Communicable Diseases, a group that helps determine how WHO
fights obesity in Mexico.
Klinger and other WHO officials who work with industry say they are
careful to maintain control of policy making. But on its website, the Pan
American Forum touts the benefits of membership as helping businesses
"avoid regulation" and "influence regulatory environments."
"WHO is getting hijacked," said Boyd Swinburn, an Australian professor
and long-time member of WHO's nutrition advisory committees. "They're
cash-strapped, and they're bringing the private sector in. That's very
dangerous."
Coke sees the situation differently.
"It's about the convergence of the interests," said Jorge Casimiro,
Coca-Cola's director of international government relations and public
affairs. "What we're trying to say is we're ready to take action. We're
companies who want to do this. We're ready to go."
<snip - the article has been truncated here>