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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=twnet@po.jaring.my
href="mailto:twnet@po.jaring.my">Third World Network</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV><SPAN class=SpellE><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=black size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><A
href="http://www.twnside.org.sg">www.twnside.org.sg</A></SPAN></FONT></B></SPAN><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT color=black><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal style="LINE-HEIGHT: 14.4pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black
size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Big
<SPAN class=SpellE>Pharma’s</SPAN> Dirty Tricks
Exposed<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT><BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">The world’s major
drug manufacturers are spending more on promoting their drugs than they are on
researching them, a report by the Consumers International (CI), the
international federation of consumer groups, has found.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">According
to its report, <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Branding <SPAN
class=GramE>The</SPAN> Cure</SPAN></I>, <SPAN class=SpellE>maximisation</SPAN>
of profit is being put before health
considerations.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">There
is a shocking lack of publicly available information about the $60 billion spent
annually by the industry on drug promotion, the report says of its study of 20
of the world’s biggest drug companies.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">The
report sets out to review how self-regulation and corporate social
responsibility had fared within the drug industry since Health Action
International published <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Blurring <SPAN
class=GramE>The</SPAN> Boundaries: New Trends in Drug Promotion </SPAN></I>in
1998.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><I><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Blurring
the Boundaries </SPAN></FONT></I><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">found that,
‘Globally, there is a huge imbalance in the financial resources available for
promotional versus independent information. As a result, consumers and <SPAN
class=SpellE>prescribers</SPAN> are generally subject to a positive information
bias: the benefits of medicine use tend to be exaggerated and the risks
downplayed. And codes of practice [for drug promotion] tend to be largely
voluntary and are rarely enforced.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">‘It
is incredibly disappointing,’ says the CI report, ‘that, almost a decade later,
the picture of drug promotion and its control regime has hardly changed for the
better.’<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">The
abuses detailed in <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Branding <SPAN
class=GramE>The</SPAN> Cure</SPAN></I> show that drug companies are creating
illnesses and using kickbacks, cartels and <SPAN class=SpellE>chatrooms</SPAN>
to make their drugs more profitable.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">The
drug <SPAN class=GramE>companies</SPAN> stand accused
of:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">-
promoting their products through patients’ groups, students and Internet <SPAN
class=SpellE>chatrooms</SPAN> to bypass a ban on direct advertising to the
public and to ‘create a subtle need among consumers to demand drugs for the
conditions’. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">A
further form of ‘nice and friendly’ marketing identified involves providing
disease information via general health pamphlets and magazine articles on
‘modern’ lifestyle conditions, such as stress and eating habits, to encourage
people to ask their doctors for medicines. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN class=GramE><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">-
corrupting doctors and health professionals.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"> The report states,
‘It can be concluded that corrupting healthcare professionals is not an uncommon
practice among pharmaceutical companies.’ The tactics involve ‘kickbacks and
consulting agreements’. The kickbacks involve free samples that research has
shown creates a <SPAN class=SpellE>Pavlovian</SPAN> demand and willingness to
supply the branded drug that is usually more expensive as well as extravagant
trips to exotic locations for ‘conferences’ on new drugs and conditions.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Most
major companies also use specialist PR consultancies to groom health
professionals to become ‘key opinion leaders’ (KOL) and to promote the company’s
products through their work. ‘They may be paid by the company for their
promotional efforts via presentations, research papers, conferences and
debates,’ the report states. Consequently, if there’s a conflict of interest or
‘profit motive’ behind the information on the drugs they receive, the public
remain unaware of it. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">‘More
than half of all the companies surveyed have been implicated in controversies
regarding free samples, kickbacks, and gifts to medical professionals,’ the
report says. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">-
pursuing ‘a variety of anti-competitive strategies, including cartels,
fraudulent patent <SPAN class=SpellE>manoeuvres</SPAN>, offering improper
discounts, price hikes, payments to competitors for not challenging patents and
cutting off supplies of drugs and active ingredients’, to keep prices high and
secure markets.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">As
was recently highlighted in <I><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The
Ecologist</SPAN></I>, the report says studies have shown that the results of
drug trials are more likely to be positive where funding is provided by the
manufacturer, and that many research articles are ghostwritten in the name of
eminent doctors who may or may not have had access to all the trial
results.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN-US">‘All
the while, consumers are in the dark about how their medicine consumption
choices are the result of veiled relationships between doctors and the
pharmaceutical companies,’ says the report.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>