Not only is this the same company that kills thousands every year by selling cigarettes, but it has also been accused of marketing to children in the Third World and of deliberately concealing evidence of the negative health effects of smoking, and is currently under investigation by the DTI over allegations of involvement in large-scale tobacco smuggling. Ironic, then, that they should be giving money to set up an 'International Centre for Corporate Responsibility'. In the process, Peru was blocked from paying other creditors first, nearly forcing a default on its debt payments, which would have thrown the country further into economic chaos.
Singer calls it 'sound business practice'.
According to the Financial Times, drug companies now spend more on branding and marketing than on research and development. It doesn't matter if the pill works, as long as the reps can sell it to doctors, seems to be the message. Final proof, if such were needed, that concern for people's health now takes second place to profits. John Mole, analyst at PriceWaterhouseCoopers', in a BBC report on why the internet revolution hasn't really happened yet. Four-fifths of websites are in English, a language understood by only one in 10 people worldwide.