Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18956

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Hunt P, Khosla R.
Are drug companies living up to their human rights responsibilities? The perspective of the former United nations special rapporteur (2002-2008).
PLoS Med 2010 Sep 28; 7:(9):
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000330

Abstract:

BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE: The human
rights responsibilities of drug
companies have been considered for
years by nongovernmental
organizations, but were most sharply
defined in a report by the UN
Special Rapporteur on the right to
health, submitted to the United
Nations General Assembly in August
2008. The “Human Rights Guidelines
for Pharmaceutical Companies in
relation to Access to Medicines”
include responsibilities for
transparency, management, monitoring
and accountability, pricing, and
ethical marketing, and against
lobbying for more protection in
intellectual property laws, applying
for patents for trivial
modifications of existing medicines,
inappropriate drug promotion, and
excessive pricing. Two years after
the release of the Guidelines, the
PLoS Medicine Debate asks whether
drug companies are living up to
their human rights responsibilities.
Sofia Gruskin and Zyde Raad from the
Harvard School of Public Health say
more assessment is needed of such
responsibilities; Geralyn Ritter,
Vice President of Global Public
Policy and Corporate Responsibility
at Merck & Co. argues that multiple
stakeholders could do more to help
States deliver the right to health;
and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla
introduce Mr. Hunt’s work as the UN
Special Rapporteur on the right to
the highest attainable standard of
health, regarding the human rights
responsibilities of pharmaceutical
companies and access to medicines.