E-DRUG: WHO and the Pharma industry
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Dear E-druggers,
Greatings from Geneva. Recently we posted a statement on WHO and
pharmaceutical industry endorsed by a number of public interest NGOs
present at the World Health Assembly. Please note that now Consumers
International and the International Society of Drug Bulletins have added
their support. If your organisation would like to do the same, please
let us know as soon as possible. We will add you to the list as soon as
your message comes in.
Ellen `t Hoen
hai@hai.antenna.nl
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 May 1999/version 3
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
Consumers International
International Society of Drug Bulletins
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 representatives of HAI:
Ellen �t Hoen in Geneva at mobile tel: (+31-6) 557 354 72
or Lisa Hayes in Geneva at mobile tel: (+31-6) 24 22 58 47
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