Bad Pharma, Bad Karma; The Pharmaceutical Industry in Developing Countries

Abstract

About a third of the world’s population does not have regular access to essential medicines today. This is partly caused by Big Pharma’s policies to maintain high drug prices and hold on to exclusive rights for their production, causing them to be completely out of reach for developing countries. But apart from this, there are other ways in which multinational pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of the situation in poor countries. Clinical trials are conducted according to less strict ethical guidelines than in the West, and old drugs that are potentially dangerous and harmful are actively marketed in the developing world. Much-needed research efforts into tropical diseases are negligible. Activist voices have been stronger than ever before-but do they have enough effect? Can this multi-billion industry be incentivized to spearhead equity and human rights instead of being singularly focused on profit?