Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19267

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

Drug Companies Should Be Held More Accountable for Their Human Rights Responsibilities
PLoS Med 2010 Sep 28;
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371% 2Fjournal.pmed.1000344

Abstract:

Almost ten years ago, activism and public protest resulted in a landmark victory for the access to medicines movement, when 39 of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies dropped their collective lawsuit against the South African government for attempting to legalize the importation of cheaper generic versions of drugs [1]. Following a settlement, medication prices—including those for antiretrovirals to treat the millions of South Africans with HIV/AIDS—dropped, and public pressure on the pharmaceutical industry was hailed a success [2]. A decade later it’s time again for action—to hold drug companies accountable for their human rights responsibilities to make medicines available and accessible to those in need.

As part of this effort, PLoS Medicine publishes three unique perspectives on the question of 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 obligations [3]; Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Health Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility at Merck & Co., argues that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health [4]; and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla offer their reflections [5] on Mr. Hunt’s work as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable state of health (2002–2008), which culminated in the first “Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies” [6]. This PLoS Medicine Debate comes two years after the release of the Guidelines and a year after Mr. Hunt’s report [7] on his invited mission to review the policies and practices of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council. Together these perspectives and reports make clear that the responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies go beyond stakeholder value to encompass human rights. What is also clear is that more accountability is now needed.