Pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines – social integration and ethical CSR resolution of a global public choice problem

Abstract

This article argues that effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational pharmaceutical companies in developing countries should reflect context, opportunity, proximity, time and impact in accordance with the social integration and ethical approaches to CSR. It proposes a CSR model expressed as CSR¼COPTI+SI+E, which acknowledges access-to-medicines as a matter in the global public domain, a public choice problem and a moral responsibility issue for multinational pharmaceutical companies. This model recognises the globalisation of the principle of humanity in communities of place and communities of interest as highlighted by the Global Economic Ethic Manifesto 2009 as an integral part of the responsibilities of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The model reflects a global application of the concept of disadvantaged consumer already known to some national laws. The article suggests an access-to-medicines CSR framework for pharmaceutical companies which may include pricing, patents, testing and clinical trials, research and development, joint public private initiative and appropriate use of drugs.

Improving access to HIV/AIDS treatment in Brazil : when are compulsory licenses effective in price negotiations?

“…According to Farmanguinhos' specialists, these tests take about three months, which means that the laboratory could have been ready to produce the drug by December 2001. Farmanguinhos had a document setting out its synthesis path for Nelfinavir and was able to establish cost-based reference prices (Cassier & Correa, 2003;Orsi et al, 2003). This was an essential component of the MoH bargaining power during the price negotiations with Roche.…”

“…In addition, the U.S. Representative Mark Steven Kirk proposed to cancel trade preferences for US$ 2 billion of Brazilian exports. This situation generated an internal conflict between those arguing for the compulsory license and those arguing for renegotiation with the pharmaceutical company amongst the different Ministries (Orsi et al, 2003) Finally , 2005b). Felipe also affirmed that Abbott's offer was better than the best price offered by a generic manufacturer 23 , so he could not justify a compulsory license for imports and, in addition, at that time there was no generic version of Lop-inavir+Ritonavir approved by the WHO prequalification programme 24 (Ministry of Health of Brazil, 2005b).…”

“…The local production of ARV in Brazil started in the first half of the 1990s. In 1993, a small private laboratory named Microbiólogica was the very first local firm able to synthesize zidovudine (AZT), and, in 1994, LAFEPE became the first public laboratory to supply ARV to the Ministry of Health (Cassier & Correa, 2003;Orsi, Hasenclever, Fialho, Tigre, & Coriat, 2003). However, it was in 1997 that the cornerstone of local production started taking shape.…”

“…These laboratories do not have manufacturing capabilities to produce their own raw materials and, therefore, depend on suppliers of APIs (Dos Santos, 2010). Due to the lack of competitiveness of local suppliers, more than 90 per cent of the public demand of the APIs needed to produce ARVs are supplied by Indian and Chinese firms (Orsi et al, 2003). However, Farmanguinhos and a handful of private laboratories developed imitative capabilities for reverse engineering the synthesis processes of the different ARVs, including patented second-generation ARVs (such as Efavirenz, Nelfinavir and Lopinavir) (Cassier & Correa, 2007.…”

“…The Law 9,279/96 took effect in May 1997; thus, Brazil waived the ten years adaptation period to comply with TRIPS. The premature enforcement of the Brazilian Patent Law created constraints in the local production of ARV drugs because only those molecules that were in the market before 1996 could be copied (Orsi et al, 2003). This was aggravated by two other important decisions: the inclusion of a provision for ‛pipeline patents' of pharmaceutical inventions and the exclusion of parallel imports.…”