E-DRUG: Public Interest NGOs raise concerns about industry sponsorship
of WHO (WHO and pharmaceutical industry cont`d)
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 May 1999/2
Health Action International
Act Up-Paris
Consumer Project on Technology
Fondation du Pr�sent
INFACT
International Baby Food Action Network
International Federation of Health Records Organizations
PUBLIC INTEREST NGOS RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT INDUSTRY SPONSORSHIP OF WHO
Will WHO be able to bite the hand that feeds it?
Geneva 19 May 1999
Today a network of public interest NGOs endorsed a letter to the World
Health Organization's Director General protesting WHO's increasingly
close contact with industry and objecting to the conflict of interest it
may cause. The organisations express doubt that WHO will be able to
focus on its public health mandate when industry is directly involved
in an increasing number of its programmes.
In the letter sent by Health Action International (HAI) to Dr. Gro
Harlem Brundtland during the opening days of the 52nd World Health
Assembly, two recent examples of WHO partnership with specific companies
are given to illustrate the pharmaceutical industry's possible influence
on WHO's priorities. The most recent case involves the discovery that
the pharmaceutical company Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) has seconded an
employee to the staff of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative. An internal
MSD announcement portrays the employee as an effective ambassador.
The letter also criticises the process by which controversial guidelines
on hypertension were developed by WHO and an international working
group. The recommendations conflict with the current evidence-based
guidelines on treating hypertension and inappropriately expand the
potential market for anti-hypertension drugs.
Public interest NGOs maintain that such partnerships presume an equal
power relationship between the two partners. They also ignore the
fundamental fact that there is inherently more value in WHO's mission in
society than in that of corporations. The NGOs call upon the Director
General to explain how the organisation is working to avoid perceived or
actual conflicts of interest when accepting funding or working in close
partnership with the private sector.
The NGOs endorsing this letter believe there must be much greater
transparency and accountability by WHO in all of its decision-making
involving industry partnerships. They urge WHO to formulate and publish
guidelines for co-operation with the commercial sector. The NGOs also
propose that secondment be excluded as an option for partnership
arrangements between WHO and the industry.
For more information contact he HAI office: hai@hai.antenna.nl, by fax
at +31-20-6855002
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