Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 156

Some common market groupings have already achieved consensus on regional
priorities, notably the Caribbean countries in CARICOM, the Andean Pact countries
and the member states of the West African Economic Community. There is
considerable overlap between these initiatives and work coordinated within the WHO
regions. Just one example of the positive results is that the Caribbean countries
have now set up pooled procurement procedures and have a new regional drug testing
laboratory in Jamaica. Similarly, both the Andean Pact countries and 33 African
member states of WHO have drawn up a regional list of essential drugs as a concrete
basis for joint purchasing and production. (89)
Besides providing a forum for exchanging information and agreeing joint
strategies, regional meetings give individual countries a more forceful and unified
voice in making demands on the UN system. For example, at a workshop in
Abidjan in October 1981, 17 francophone African states called for the setting
up of a revolving fund to help countries acquire drugs. They also urged WHO
and UNCTAD to work together in drawing up an international code of
pharmaceutical marketing practices, covering promotion, prices, distribution,
research and development and transfer of technology. (901
Developing countries see regional cooperation as an important means to strengthen
their hand in obtaining the drugs they need. But they are acutely aware that even
mutual support cannot entirely remove their dependence on the major
manufacturers. It is the rich world that controls the key area of drug technology.
At a meeting in Harare in April 1982 the Zimbabwean Minister of Health expressed
the fears of some Third World policy makers in forceful terms: "Self-sufficiency
in Africa can only be achieved by concerted group action in rationalising and
coordinating the extension of our own manufacturing capacity, avoiding
unnecessary competition and complementing each other in the variety of our
products. Of course, this is not going to be allowed to succeed by the giants of
the pharmaceutical industry in the developed world. Technology will be denied,
royalties will rise and some of us will be made dumping grounds for cheap
preparations which will throttle our nascent pharmaceutical manufacturing
industry. Our awareness of these problems will make it that much easier for us
to avoid the pitfalls of the 'divide and rule' philosophy of the multinationals." l9"
Are these fears justified by the attitudes and policies of rich world governments
and manufactures? In the next chapter we examine the developed countries'
response to the Third World's desire for change.

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