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Robbing the poor to pay the rich? How the United States keeps medicines from the world's poorest

BRANT, Jennifer
November 2003

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This paper examines how the government of the United States is contravening its commitment to the World Trade Organisation's Doha Declaration (to prioritize public health over private patent rights and to promote access to medicines) by using technical assistance, bilateral and regional trade agreements, and the threat of trade sanctions to ratchet up patent protection in developing countries. This policy benefits the influential US pharmaceutical industry while pushing medicines further out of the reach of poor people

Beyond philanthropy : the pharmaceutical industry, corporate responsibility and the developing world

GLANVILLE MORRIS, Bonita
Ed
2002

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This report addresses pharmaceutical companies' corporate social responsibility in relation to the ongoing public debate over access to appropriate medicines in the developing world. It argues that the pharmaceutical industry should do more in their core business activities to actively contribute to meeting the needs of children and adults in developing countries. The report sets out benchmarks in five areas of corporate policy : pricing, patents, joint public private partnerships and appropriate use of medicines. These benchmarks provide investors, as well as NGO and the public sector, with a framework for assessing the pharmaceutical industry's contribution to the health needs of the developing world

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