Prescription for Poverty: Drug companies as tax dodgers, price gougers, and influence peddlers

Fried, Mark

doi:10.21201/2018.3293

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Everyone in a position to help must show the high degree of social responsibility the moment calls for. Governments, especially in wealthy nations, should stand up to influence peddling by pharmaceutical companies, 26 and should do their part, beginning with WTO members voting for a temporary waiver to IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines.…”

Section: Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s yours is ours: waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines

Jecker

Atuire

2021

J Med Ethics

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This paper gives an ethical argument for temporarily waiving intellectual property (IP) protections for COVID-19 vaccines. It examines two proposals under discussion at the World Trade Organization (WTO): the India/South Africa proposal and the WTO Director General proposal. Section I explains the background leading up to the WTO debate. Section II rebuts ethical arguments for retaining current IP protections, which appeal to benefiting society by spurring innovation and protecting rightful ownership. It sets forth positive ethical arguments for a temporary waiver that appeal to standing in solidarity and holding companies accountable. After examining built-in exceptions to existing agreements and finding them inadequate, the paper replies to objections to a temporary waiver and concludes, in section III, that the ethical argument for temporarily waiving IP protection for COVID-19 vaccines is strong.

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Section: Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What’s yours is ours: waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines

Jecker

Atuire

2021

J Med Ethics

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“…Illegal tax evasion and legal but unethical tax avoidance are major obstacles to adequate health system financing. The OXFAM report "Prescription for Poverty" 28 states "four pharmaceutical corporations-Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer-systematically stash their profits in overseas tax havens. They appear to deprive developing countries of more than $100 million every yearmoney that is urgently needed to meet the health needs of people in these countries-while vastly overcharging for their products.…”

Section: Financing Of Health Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Our Blind Spots in the Fight Against Health Systems Corruption Comment on "We Need to Talk About Corruption in Health Systems"

Huss

2019

Int J Health Policy Manag

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The health sector often appears prominent in surveys of perceived corruption, because citizens experience the symptoms of systemic corruption most distressingly during their interaction with frontline health workers. However, the underlying drivers of systemic corruption in society may be located in other social systems with the health system demonstrating the symptoms but not the path how to exit the situation. We need to understand the mechanisms of systemic corruption including the role of corrupt national and international leaders, the role of transnational corporations and international financial flows. We require a corruption definition which goes beyond an exclusive focus on the corrupt individual and considers social systems and organisations facilitating corruption. Finally there is an urgent need to address the serious lack of funding and research in the area of systemic corruption, because it undermines the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many low income countries with the most deprived populations.

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“…In the context of incomplete information, personalisation may be used as an instrument to avoid competition [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ] and to increase prices [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. On top of this, the pharmaceutical industry enjoys some of the highest returns among the manufacturing sector [ 30 ], which are usually not shared equally among countries [ 31 ]. The debate on whether healthcare expenditure is sustainable is still prominent in political and economic agendas [ 25 , 32 ], and there does not seem to be a consensus on how to create a more equitable and affordable healthcare system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timely, Cheap, or Risk-Free? The Effect of Regulation on the Price and Availability of New Drugs

Levaggi,

Levaggi

2024

Pharmacy

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The high level of regulation of innovative drugs on the market, which is necessary to protect consumers, produces important effects on drug availability and innovation. In public healthcare systems, the need to curb prices comes from expenditure considerations. The aim of price regulation is to obtain a more equitable allocation of the value of an innovative drug between industries and patients (by reducing prices to make drugs more affordable), but it may also reduce access. (In the listing process, the industry may find it more convenient to limit commercialisation to profitable subgroups of patients.) Furthermore, with the advent of personalised medicine, there is another important dimension that has to be considered, namely, incentives to invest in drug personalisation. In this paper, we review and discuss the impact of different pricing rules on the expenditure and availability of new drugs.

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Prescription for Poverty: Drug companies as tax dodgers, price gougers, and influence peddlers

Cited by 6 publications

References 9 publications

What’s yours is ours: waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines

What’s yours is ours: waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines

Our Blind Spots in the Fight Against Health Systems Corruption Comment on "We Need to Talk About Corruption in Health Systems"

Timely, Cheap, or Risk-Free? The Effect of Regulation on the Price and Availability of New Drugs

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