The growing trend towards public-private interactions and the impact on public health

WHO's and other international agencies and governmental bodies' increasingly close collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry has caused HAI and a number of public interest organisations to raise concerns about conflict of interest. HAI has focused attention on this issue at various fora involving WHO and other agencies.

Developments
Articles
Resources

Developments

July 2002
New joint report released by Oxfam, Save the Children and VSO: Beyond Philanthropy; the pharmaceutical industry, corporate social responsibility and the developing world. Beyond Philanthropy argues that the pharmaceutical industry should do more to actively consider the needs of poor people in developing countries in their core business activities. PDF-version; HTML version.

21 May 2002
IBFAN distributes press release on PPIs at WHA.

17 May 2002
Two key public-private interactions discussed at 55th World Health Assembly:
Note by the Director General on the Global Fund (PDF file)
Note by the Secretariat on the Global Fund (PDF file)
Report by the Secretariat on GAVI

29 January 2002
HAI Europe and members of the Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN send letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for major changes to the Global Compact.

14 January 2002
HAI/CI/IBFAN criticise WHO's promotion of public-private interactions at 109th Executive Board Meeting. Click here for statement.

Articles

* Codes in Context: TNC Regulation in an Era of Dialogues and Partnerships,
by Judith Richter, February 2002.

* Greenwash + 10, The UN's Global Compact, Corporate Accountability and the Johannesburg Earth
Summit, by Kenny Bruno, Corpwatch, Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN, January 24, 2002.

* New Products into Old Systems, The initial impact of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) at country level. By London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Mary Starling, Ruairi, Brugha and Gill Walt), with contributions from Save the Children UK (Annie Heaton and Regina Keith).

* Unhealthy Influence, there is a danger that WHO's new partnership with drug companies will skew its health policies, by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, February 6, 2002.

Resources

* Corporate Europe Observatory

* Global Fund, a UN initiative to fight AIDS/TBC/Malaria.