The Pharmaceutical corporate presence in developing countries

This important volume examines the ethical concerns of multinational corporations in the production, distribution, and use of pharmaceuticals in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The 33 contributors to the book, which include pharmaceutical executives, religious activists, consumer advocates, officials of nongovernmental organizations, representatives from the World Health Organization, and academics, explore ways in which multinational managers can direct the resources of their firms toward the amelioration of poverty in the Third World, while maintaining the economic viability of their corporations. The book begins by analyzing the overall issue of multinational pharmaceutical corporate involvement in Third World locations. The contributors discuss the broad issue of conflict and collaboration between multinational corporations and activists, the role of pharmaceuticals in Third World health care, and the role of multinational corporations in that process. The book then addresses the three most significant current issues in the multinational corporate involvement: essential drugs, counterfeit drugs, and intellectual property rights. In the next section; a case study of Kenya is analyzed by the World Health Organization official who established the essential drugs network for the Kenya government, by a Kenyan sociologist working to incorporate traditional healing into the Kenyan medical community, and by Kenyan missionaries, as well as a research team from Notre Dame. Finally the book summarizes the interaction between religious networks and multinational pharmaceutical corporations as it has evolved from confrontation to collaboration among multinationals and the other groups concerned with health care in developing countries.