Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 178

The prospects of rich world governments putting the interests of developing
countries before their trade balances are not optimistic. However, one encouraging
sign is a statement made somewhat surprisingly by the West German delegate to
the 1982 World Health Assembly. Dr. Gaudich is reported to have said that "the
industrialized countries of the European Region should really direct their
efforts to ensuring that no drugs were exported which were not admitted in the
country of origin and that patient information was of the same quality in the
exporting and in the importing country, particularly in regard to drug safety and
such matters as contra-indications, warnings and precautions to be taken ". (60)
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Rich world governments are of course contributing valuable technical assistance
to developing countries in the field of drug production, management and training.
For example, the Italian Government has recently allocated $ 15 million (£8.3m)
specifically to the WHO Action Programme on Essential Drugs.<6I) According
to a recent WHO report, the Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, French, West
German, Swiss and US Governments are all helping to finance projects to improve
the supply of essential drugs in developing countries. (62>
Under the British aid programme funds were allocated to finance medical sciences
training for over 1,000 students from developing countries in 1980. (63) Special
training of official inspectors for medicines control has also been arranged jointly
between the British Government medicines inspectorate and the law department
of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. <64)
In addition to their proportionately large contributions to WHO and other
international agencies, governments of rich drug producing nations all allocate
considerable official development aid funds to health-related projects. For
example, an estimated 8% to 10% of the total British aid programme was allocated
to health aid in 1980. This means that developing countries benefited from between
£69 and £86 million in health aid.(65) In the same year Britain benefited from sales
revenue on over £404 million worth of pharmaceutical exports to developing
countries (including the relatively rich oil-producing states). (66)
Some aid funds are allocated to projects directly related to the needs of the poor
- such as the training of village health workers. But the vast majority (over twothirds of total British official development assistance in 1980) was either fully
or partially tied to the purchase of British goods and services.<67) In some cases
poor countries have been encouraged to buy expensive capital equipment and hightechnology machinery at the expense of the basic services relevant to the needs
of the poor majority. The non-governmental organisations are increasingly putting
pressure on rich world governments fundamentally to reappraise the quality of
official aid and ensure that aid benefits the Third World poor instead of adding
to their deprivation. (68)
Rich world governments have generally been slow to respond to initiatives that
would put the interests of poor consumers before those of rich world
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