New Report: Top Pharma Companies Fail to Address
Industry Best Practices on HIV/AIDS
At International AIDS Conference, ICCR Study Finds Leading Companies
Fail to Adopt Comprehensive Response to HIV/AIDS Pandemic
TORONTO, ON///August 14, 2006/// In the spotlight of the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility released a comprehensive scorecard evaluating the pharmaceutical industry's efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the neglected diseases that often accompany the virus.
With the Conference entitled "Time to Deliver," the ICCR report highlights the large disparities between industry best practices in addressing the HIV/AIDS global pandemic and the current actions of 15 leading pharmaceutical companies.
"We see two major problems - a failure to develop new medicines that address neglected diseases and a lack of access for poor patients to the existing medicines," said Daniel Rosan, ICCR's Program Director for Public Health and author of the report. "These flaws are the result of market failure and insufficient attention to the issue. Neither problem is insurmountable, but thousands die while we wait for results."
Each of the industry's 15 leading companies was evaluated on 12 best practices, including:
-How its research programs address the need for fixed dose combinations and
practical remedies for neglected diseases;
-How it addresses the needs of children with HIV with child-specific formulations
and appropriate pricing for the lowered medicinal strength;
-How accessible the company's drugs are with regards to licensing, patent access,
differential pricing according to each country's overall income, and registering
drugs and dosages with each country's regulatory agencies;
-How the company reports on these issues to its shareholders;
-How its philanthropic efforts impact the pandemic;
-How transparent the company's political spending is to both shareholders and
the general public; and
-How transparent the company's trade association activity is to both shareholders
and the general public.
The report concludes that while some companies have implemented best practices in some areas, no company has implemented a comprehensive response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
More than 40 million people in the world are now living with HIV, and an estimated 6 million need treatment today with antiretroviral drugs or they will soon die. The remaining people infected will require treatment within the next 10 years. The ever-expanding reach of this pandemic has changed the fabric of societies - and their markets - around the world.
The full report is available for purchase here.
Read the Executive Summary here.
Download the Powerpoint presentation here.
ABOUT ICCR
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a 35-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations and dioceses with combined portfolios worth an estimated $110 billion. ICCR seeks to build a more just and sustainable society by integrating social values into corporate and investor decisions. ICCR is one of the foremost shareholder advocacy organizations in the world. More detailed information about shareholder resolutions is available from ICCR's Ethvest (sm), the comprehensive, on-line, subscription-based, ethical investor database, www.iccr.org.
CONTACT: Toby Fallsgraff, 202-478-6184/202-374-9769
Dan Rosan, 212-8702317/510-914-6398