Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 185

IOCU's Regional Office, which is also based in Penang, has drawn up a Consumer
Action/Research Kit identifying 44 "problem'' drugs to act as a guide for groups
in other developing countries that want to carry out their own action-research
to stop sales of unnecessary and harmful drugs. (87) IOCU is also setting up a
Consumer Interpol, grouping together about 120 organisations in 50 countries
covering every continent. Members and various documentation centres in developed
countries will feed information into a central data bank on regulatory decisions
taken to withdraw or restrict the use of potentially harmful products. News of these
decisions will then be disseminated to local groups in developing countries. Armed
with this information, they will lobby their own governments to adopt similar
restrictions. When plans for a Consumer Interpol were first drawn up, its purpose
was described as fighting "deceptive and unfair trade practices" that have a
"particularly severe impact on the most disadvantaged consumers". (88) The
project has received financial backing from the Dutch Government.
For the majority of HAI members the immediate objective is to campaign against
double standards in marketing practices. HAI' s longer term aims are to press for
health-centred drug policies to benefit the world's poor. Central to this strategy
are attempts to publicise and encourage public support for bold Third World
initiatives for better drug use. HAI is also lobbying for meaningful international
controls on drug marketing practices.
During its first year HAI produced a critique of the International Federation of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations' International Code of Marketing
Practices. HAI sees the industry voluntary code as a conspicuously unconvincing
attempt to put its own house in order and forestall WHO controls. (89) In May
1982 HAI played an active role in lobbying at the World Health Assembly and
prepared a special briefing pack focussing on the key issues confronting delegates
to the Assembly. HAI's views were extensively reported in the press and the
resolution on the Action Programme on Essential Drugs which the Assembly
adopted gives HAI an added incentive to increase its worldwide membership and
build up its campaigning strength on the international scene. (901
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL
MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATIONS (IFPMA)
The IFPMA represents pharmaceutical manufacturers associations in 47 countries,
over half of them in developing countries. Its Secretariat is based in Zurich. IFPMA
was founded in 1968 to improve contact between national and industry
associations, and participate in discussion in areas such as health legislation. One
of IFPMA's declared objectives is "to promote and support continuous
development throughout the pharmaceutical industry of ethical principles and
practices voluntarily agreed on". <91>
IFPMA's public pronouncements on Third World policy issues have shown
industry's ability to move with the consensus of medical and world opinion. For
example, in 1977 IFPMA's initial reaction to the WHO Selection of Essential Drugs
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