Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 212

53

ICSSR/ICMR, op.cit., p.54. (conversion rate from Rupees taken as £1 / Rupees 18)

54

Ibid., p. 176: "The total output of the industry increased a hundredfold from Rs.100 million
in 1947 to Rs. 10,500 million in 1978-79 (at current prices). This was due to expanded production,
especially of an ever-increasing number of sophisticated drugs and rising prices. The index
of production rose from 64 in 1960 to 165 in 1979(1970/100). The drug industry has enjoyed
a higher man-average profitability so that investment therein has increased substantially from
Rs.240 million in 1952 to Rs.4,5000 million in 1977." (i.e. approx. £250 million)

55

-

56

OXFAM Field Directors' Handbook, op. cit., Section 3.

57

"Alma-Ata Declaration", reproduced in World Health Forum, 2(1), 1981, pp. 5-22.

58

Ibid.

59

WHO, National Policies and Practices in regard to medicinal products; and related international
problems, background document for reference use at technical discussions, Thirty-First World
Health Assembly, A31/Technical Discussions/I, 6 March 1978, p.5.

60

World Health Organisation, The selection of essential drugs. Report of a WHO Expert
Committee, Technical Report Series 615, WHO, Geneva 1977, and update Technical Report
Series 641, WHO, Geneva 1979.

61

Ibid.

62

Dr. Mahler, Director General WHO: "But for the villager and urban slum-dweller great miracles
can be achieved with fewer than 30 well-chosen drugs." ("The meaning of 'health for all by
the year 2000 ' " World Health Forum, vol. 2, No. 1. 1981, p.17.)

63

United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC), Transnational Corporations
and the Pharmaceutical Industry, UN, New York, 1979, p.84.

64

WHO (A31/Technical Discussions/1) 1978, op. cit., p.5.

ICSSR/ICMR, op.cit., pp. 5 and 19.
Kamala J. Jaya Rao, of National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, "Kerala: a Health
Yardstick for India", Medico Friend Circle Bulletin, October 1980.
World Bank, The Effects of Education on Health, World Bank Staff Working Paper
No.405, July 1980.

CHAPTER 2
1

Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Population Control,
Bangladesh Health Profile 1977, Table 1 la, p. 105.

2

For example, in Bangladesh
An estimated 325,000 active TB cases (aged over 10) receive no treatment.
At least 90,000 under fives die each year of pneumonia.
An estimated 136,000 under fives die of tetanus (mortality 8.6 per 1000).
A WHO survey records the incidence of neonatal tetanus at 23.9 per 1000, with a case
fatality rate of 93.5%.
An estimated 32 million children under 15 need worm treatment. (Source: Bangladesh
Health Profile 1977, op.cit.)

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