Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 183

HEALTH ACTION INTERNATIONAL (HAI)
Health Action International was launched in Geneva in May 1981, at the end of
an international seminar on Pharmaceuticals, attended by participants from 27
developing and developed countries. (81) HAI is a network of over 50
development action, consumer and other public interest groups and organisations.
Its founder members include development agencies such as OXFAM, the
International Organisation of Consumer Unions and organisations of health
professionals such as the Voluntary Health Association of India. Each member
has different priorities and specific areas of interest, but all share both a common
interest in health and medicine in developing countries, and a commitment to
achieving positive changes.
Amongst the North American and European groups, one of the most active HAI
members is the London-based action-research unit Social Audit, which has
produced a number of publications documenting discrepancies in drug marketing
practices.(82) In 1981 Social Audit released the first of a planned series of 'antiadvertisements' aimed at encouraging Third World prescribers in particular to
be sceptical in approaching manufacturers' claims for their products. The first
of these anti-advertisements, WHO says Lomotil has no value? is reproduced
opposite. By focussing on a specific product, Social Audit were instrumental in
getting the manufacturers to agree to change their labelling worldwide. (831 But
Social Audit stress that this specific case-study into one drug raises far-reaching
issues of corporate responsibility and the impact of uncontrolled practices in
developing countries. <84)
Consumer organisations in a variety of developing countries form a key part of
HAI's international membership. The Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific of
the International Organisation of Consumer Unions (IOCU) acts as HAI's clearing
house and the editorial office of HAINews. IOCU and its associated organisations
in a large number of developing countries do not confine themselves to the 'narrow'
issues popularly associated with 'consumerism' in developed countries. As Anwar
Fazal, President of IOCU emphasises, "The consumer movement is an integral
part of the development process and is therefore even more important for developing
countries. The consumer movement concerns economic justice... it concerns human
rights ... it concerns action and change." <85)
These HAI members are thus concerned with medicines in the broad context of
poverty and health. For example, the Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP)
has been actively campaigning on the Pharmaceuticals issue for some years. CAP
has focussed on inconsistent standards in drug marketing - as one aspect of how
the rich world takes advantage of the poor. CAP has lobbied against double
standards in marketing by creating public awareness and pushing for the
withdrawal of hazardous drugs. But the problems are also tackled in the villages
through health education to make poor people aware of alternatives to unnecessary
and potentially dangerous drugs. (86)
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