Drug company lobbyist joins Oxfam's cheap drugs campaign
A senior lobbyist in the pharmaceutical
industry is leaving his job
to help to spearhead the battle
for cheaper drugs to be made
available in the developing world.
David Earnshaw, director of
European government affairs for
SmithKline Beecham, will next
month join Oxfam and lead its
campaign on access to medicines.
Oxfam has been at the forefront
of the growing confrontation
over the costs of drugs to the
developing world, especially
AIDS and HIV treatment, and
Mr Earnshaw is highly critical of
the role of the industry he left
earlier this year.
"My view on the access to
medicines issue is that the industry
has been very stupid. Crass
stupidity is a good description.
They have risked blowing everything
they hold so dear - like their
intellectual property protection -
for what is a very tiny fraction of
their revenue," he told the BMJ.
"The developing world market
accounts for about 5% of the revenue
of the industry. Put together,
the market capitalisation of
the four largest companies is
more than the economy of India.
"I have urged for a couple of
years now for the need to think
strategically about the issue and
try and move to a high volume,
low price paradigm, and I think
the shock of this week's events in
South Africa will now take them
in that direction. Instead of going
to court in South Africa, if they
had invested a little bit in thinking
about the problem, we would
all have been a little better off."
The approach of business as
usual, which was "basically high
prices, low volume in the developing
world - that is, get medicines
to rich people" was clearly
immoral, he said. "It is the wrong
business strategy. It is out of place
in the real world."
He added, "One of the problems
has been that the industry is
a remarkably comfortable
cocoon, and it does not encourage
radical thought."
He dislikes the description of
him as poacher turned gamekeeper,
and said that the key to
dealing with the issues is for all
sides to work together.
"The only way the world is
going to make any progress on
this is through working together. If
I can bring some expertise and
ability to Oxfam and NGOs
[non-governmental organisations]
based on what I have done
in the past, that's good, and I
believe that more people should
move from the corporate sector to
NGOs and the other way as well."
Roger Dobson, Abergavenny
studentBMJ 2001;09:171-216 June ISSN 0966-6494
