The 100 Largest Governments and Corporations by Revenue

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Nicholas Freudenberg

How does the size of governments and corporations compare? To answer this question, I identified one metric often used to measure the size of organizations: annual revenues. I then found a source for annual revenues for governments, The CIA World Fact Book and another for corporations, The Global Fortune 500 List. Both provided data for 2014. The results below show that of the 100 governments and corporations with the highest annual revenues in 2014, 63 are corporations and 37 are governments. Previous analysts have compared corporations to national economies, a different measure. In 2000, Anderson and Cavanagh found that of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 were global corporations and 49 were countries. In 2012, the economic analyst D. Steven White listed the top 175 “economic entities” in the world for 2011, using GDP for nations and revenues for corporations. Of these, 63% were corporations and 37% were nations.

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British doctors face compulsory system to declare gifts and hospitality from drug companies

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The BMJ reports that British doctors will be forced to declare any gifts or trips they have received from drug companies from next year. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that he plans to extend the existing rules and regulations over gifts and hospitality in connection with the promotion of medicines to anyone able to supply or prescribe them.

NRA and gun industry sue over Seattle’s adoption of “gun violence tax”

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The Associated Press reports that National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, (the trade association of gun makers) and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the city of Seattle on Monday over its adoption of a so-called “gun violence tax,” a tax on firearms and ammunition designed to help offset the financial toll of gun violence.

Death of a public health champion: Warren Braren

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Last week, reported the New York Times, Warren Braren, a critic of the tobacco industry who helped to spark a Congressional ban on tobacco advertising, died at the age of 82. Let’s examine the contributions of this champion of public health.

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Pharmaceutical industry attempting to undermine access to affordable medicines

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

South Africa’s eligibility for ongoing inclusion in the African Growth and Opportunity Act is being used as a bargaining chip in pressure by the pharmaceutical industry to get the country to backtrack on intellectual property law reforms aimed at promoting access to more affordable medicines, charged several South African advocacy and human rights groups, reports Times Live, a South African newspaper.

Surgeon general: I have no regrets about calling gun violence public health issue

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The nation’s chief doctor said he doesn’t regret saying gun violence is a public health issue, reports Associated Press. Vivek Murthy called his difficult confirmation process a consequence of speaking out. He was confirmed in December in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association, in a rare defeat for the powerful gun lobby.

Selling science, selling soda: How Coca Cola buys credibility from universities

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

by Nicholas Freudenberg

Eight years ago, I wrote in CHW about how and why corporations buy scientists to advance their business goals.   Sadly, the problem continues. This week the New York Times published a story on how Coca Cola has funded researchers at the University of South Carolina, the University of Colorado and the West Virginia University to make the case that exercise, not reduced consumption of sugary beverages, is the solution to obesity. Coke has also funded the Global Energy Balance Network, a nonprofit network of the researchers it funds, to advance this argument more widely.

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Seattle passes laws to tax guns and ammo, require report of stolen firearms

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The New York Daily News reports that the Seattle City Council unanimously approved two laws designed to curb gun violence and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the city. The “gun violence tax” requires gun dealers to pay $25 for every firearm sold and 5 cents for every round of ammunition. The revenue will go toward prevention programs and research “intended to reduce the burden of gun violence” in crime-riddled neighborhoods. “Taxpayers in Seattle pay for millions of dollars in emergency medical care every year for people who have been shot,” City Council President Tim Burgess said. “It’s time for the gun industry to chip in to help defray these costs.”

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Must Protect Nations’ Right to Enact Measures to Reduce Tobacco Use

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

TPP map
The nations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (credit)

As they complete negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, the United States and the 11 other countries involved must ensure the final agreement protects the right of participating nations to adopt public health measures to reduce tobacco use and prevents tobacco companies from using the TPP to attack such measures.

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