The Indian government will allow a local company to manufacture a generic version of the cancer drug Nexevar, which is currently patented by Bayer. A Common Dreams post explained that the the government’s ruling is based on a trade law that gives the government power to allow the manufacturing of generic versions of otherwise unaffordable drugs. It enables Natco Pharma to create a version of Nexevar that will cost $176 for 120 tablets. Bayer was charging about $5,600 for the same amount. Bayer spokeswoman Sabina Cusimano told the Associated Press, “We will see if we can further defend our intellectual property rights in India.”
China Considers Raising Taxes to Cut Tobacco Use
China is studying the possibility of increasing prices and tax hikes to curb tobacco consumption, reports China Radio International. A senior official with the country’s tobacco use regulator, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), says the effects of raising tobacco prices in order to curb tobacco use need to be tested in practice, given that tobacco prices and the tax on tobacco are already at a high level in China. Miao earlier admitted that more efforts are needed to control tobacco use and curb the number of smokers, which in China is now 350 million.
Corporations Transfer Environmental Costs to Society
A new report by KPMG, the international the audit, tax and advisory firm, calculated that if companies had to pay for the full environmental costs of their production, they would lose 41 cents for every US$1 in earnings on average. The report, “Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World,” explores issues such as climate change, energy and fuel volatility, water availability and cost and resource availability, as well as population growth spawning new urban centers.
China National Tobacco Reports Higher Profit than Wal-Mart’s
China National Tobacco Corp., that nation’s cigarette monopoly, may be larger by annual profit than Wal-Mart Stores Inc. according to a rare release of the company’s financial data, reports Bloomberg News. The state-owned tobacco company had net income of 117.7 billion yuan ($18.7 billion) in 2010 on sales of 770.4 billion yuan. Industrial Bank Co. released the figures in a statement last week because China National Tobacco is buying a 5.2 billion yuan stake in the Shanghai-listed lender. China National Tobacco made more in profit in 2010 than the combined total for Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), British American Tobacco Plc (BATS), and Altria Group, Inc., the world’s three- biggest listed tobacco companies, according to the figures.
Occupy Wall Street Visits Pfizer
Occupy Wall Street protesters marched around midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, February 29, chanting anti-corporate slogans outside banks and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, reported the Wall Street Journal. Protesters awarded Pfizer a prize for “Excellence in Profiteering,” noting the discrepancy between the wealthy pharmaceutical company and the millions of uninsured Americans who cannot afford health care.
Fighting Big Tobacco in Indonesia
Mardiyah Chamim has authored a new book “A Giant Pack of Lies,” that describes the marketing and lobbying practices of Indonesia’s powerful tobacco industry, part of an intensifying campaign to control tobacco use in Indonesia. The author compares that nation’s current attitude toward smoking to that of the United States in the 1930s, arguing that the country is decades behind in raising public awareness of the dangers of tobacco use and forcing the industry to take responsibility for its harmful impact on public health. Earlier this year, Vanguard documentary film maker Chrishof Putzel exposed the ways that Indonesian tobacco marketers target children.
Can Corporations Provide Sustainable Solutions to Global Food Insecurity?
On February 15, Marion Nestle, a public health professor at New York University, spoke on corporate influences on food policy at a meeting of the NGO Working Group on Food and Hunger. Nestle proposed food insecurity as one of the main issues around corporations and food policy for 2012, arguing that the main thing we can do to combat food insecurity is address its root causes. “There’s plenty that can be done at the local level if not at the international level, but work on the root causes, all you public health people,” she urged.
Nestle referred to UNICEF’s conceptual framework for the causes of malnutrition in society (Figure 1) to emphasize that food insecurity stems from social issues, not just from a lack of food. Lack of food is the end problem, but dealing only with that lack does not solve the root causes of food insecurity. According to Nestle, in order for everyone on the planet to be adequately nourished, we must create income equity and political stability, invest in sustainable agriculture and education, empower women, ensure access to clean water and safe food, and promote breastfeeding.
Some food and beverage corporations seek to position themselves as part of the solution to the problem of global food insecurity, marketing fortified food products in developing countries to target under-nutrition.
For example, European consumer-goods corporation Unilever produces food and beverages, among other products. Under “Sustainability” on the Unilever website, you can read about how the corporation’s “brands can play a role in tackling under-nutrition and many of [its] products already make an important contribution to the micronutrient intakes of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.” These products include fortified margarines, instant porridges, powdered drinks and snacks, and instant hot school meals. American food processing company H.J. Heinz is also investing in micronutrients in the name of sustainability. According to its website, Heinz has been a pioneer in supporting the development of micronutrient powders, provided in convenient, “single-serve sachets.”
While such products do indeed address nutrient deficiencies, according to Nestle, “these efforts are about products, not food.” And in the words of Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean emeritus of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “Nutrition can only be sustainable if people ultimately pay for it. Nutrition could stop being a program when governments change priorities.” So, while fortified foods are important suppliers of emergency nutrients, they come at a price. Rather than addressing root causes of food insecurity, fortified foods are marketable products that must be purchased. People suffering from food insecurity will have to rely on government programs or charitable donations to access fortified foods, instead of benefitting from sustainable solutions to undernourishment.
In a 2010 article in the American Journal of Public Health entitled, “Can the Food Industry Help Tackle the Growing Global Burden of Undernutrition?” Derek Yach et al argue that, yes, food and beverage corporations are ideally positioned to address under-nutrition. According to the authors, corporate business expertise, distribution capacity, and product development capabilities are all vital components of successfully combating problems of food insecurity. (It is, perhaps, important to note that Yach, a former WHO health official, is now a senior vice president at PepsiCo.) True, corporations have resources and expertise that could have a huge impact on food insecurity, but would they be able to use this expertise to address the root causes?
In his 2010 Wall St. Journal article, “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility,” business professor Aneel Kanmani corroborates Nestle’s argument: “The fact is that while companies sometimes can do well by doing good, more often they can’t. Because in most cases, doing what’s best for society means sacrificing profits.” In our economic system, a corporation’s end goal is always to make a profit, and profit comes from products. And products, no matter how healthy, can never address the inequality that is the root cause of food insecurity.”The goal of the company is to make a profit. It’s really that simple,” Nestle said in her presentation. And, as she argued with co-author David Ludwig in a 2008 Lancet article, “In a Western-style capitalistic economy, food corporations, like all corporations, must make the financial return to stockholders their first priority. Wall Street places corporations under great pressure not only to be profitable, but also to meet quarterly growth targets… Far greater profits come from highly processed, commodity-derived products.” Nestle sees an irreconcilable conflict between highly processed products and public health, even if these products contain essential nutrients.
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Patients Say FDA Lets Big Pharma Create Artificial Drug Shortages
Two dozen people suffering from life-threatening Fabry disease, a rare condition caused by deficiencies in an enzyme needed to metabolize lipids, say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services give drug manufacturers carte blanche to create drug shortages that deny them the medicine that keeps them alive, reports Courthouse News. Twenty-five people sued the agencies in Federal Court on constitutional claims. Most of the plaintiffs say they are being denied interstate access to Fabrazyme, a drug that treats Fabry disease, due to a shortage created by Genzyme, the drug’s manufacturer, but not a party to the case. They seek an injunction ordering the government to take the enforcement actions and they want the drug companies to disgorge profits unjustly created by drug shortages and fined for creating shortages.
Alcohol Industry Reaching for New Markets in Asia
As the European market decreases, big alcohol companies are searching for new Asian markets. Unregulated markets and big populations promise new opportunities for growth. Bloomberg Businessweek describes how Carlsberg, “the world’s fourth- biggest brewer, is seeking acquisition opportunities in Asia, including China, amid slowing growth in Europe.”
Campaign Against Retail Marketing of Tobacco to Youth
The New York chapter of the American Lung Association has launched a campaign to reduce aggressive retail marketing of tobacco to youth in New York City. A video shows local youth from Queens leading decision makers and the media on a tour of the rampant tobacco advertising they encounter. In New York State, the tobacco industry spends $1 million every day to market its products.
Corporations and Health Watch 