Geneva-based Covalence, a company that markets the information system, EthicalQuote, has observed that pharma is not keeping pace with other industries in terms of the overall balance of global good and bad news coverage in four broad ethical areas: labour standards, waste management, product social utility and human rights policy. “The pharma industry is losing [...]

Today, 13 pharmaceutical companies, the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organisations announced a new, coordinated push to accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade. Uniting efforts with NTD-endemic countries, partners pledged to [...]

Six pharmaceutical companies and several governments have pledged more than $150m in medicines and funding over five years to tackle some of the most neglected diseases. The debilitating illnesses – including leprosy, lymphatic filariasis and sleeping sickness – affect 1bn of the world’s poorest people, place a burden on health services, stunt children’s education and [...]

Ten companies were recognized today at this year’s World Business and Development Awards (WBDA) for their efforts in improving the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities. The winning companies are engaged in diverse initiatives such as providing low-income housing in Mexico; assisting farmers in Sierra Leone integrate into sorghum value chains, and [...]

Amnesty International Suisse veut un code de conduite pour les entreprises actives dans la transplantation d’organes en Chine, un pays qui utilise des condamnés à mort. Novartis répond favorablement. Roche se tait. Ils seront plus de 4000 experts à participer dès dimanche à Vancouver au 23e congrès interna­tional de la Société de transplantation: médecins, chirurgiens, [...]

A group of 500 global businesses, including dozens of Australian corporations, have called for “credible” action on climate change. The publication of the so-called Copenhagen Communique comes two months before the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, amid fears the meeting will fail to put in place an agreement to effectively cut the [...]

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group, defied the World Health Organisation and some of its corporate peers by ruling out a donation to the poor of vaccines to counter the latest flu pandemic, and saying developing nations or donor nations should cover the costs. Daniel Vasella, Novartis chief executive, told the Financial Times that he would [...]

Le Medef a horreur des décisions de circonstance mais, cette fois, la pression politique est telle qu’il n’a plus le choix. Moins de deux ans après avoir émis des recommandations sur la rémunération des dirigeants, suite aux affaires Forgeard (EADS) et Zacharias (Vinci), l’organisation présidée par Laurence Parisot dévoile ce matin un « code de [...]

“Malaria defeated the international community many years ago. We cannot allow this to happen again. A single global action plan for malaria control, that enjoys partnership-wide support, is a strong factor for success,” said Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the launch of the new Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) in [...]

Increased attention on product human risk and smaller media coverage of drug donations have challenged Pharmaceuticals’ ethical reputation last year, states a report published today by Geneva-based research firm Covalence – Covalence Pharmaceutical Industry Report 2008. The pharmaceutical industry dropped from the first to the third rank of Covalence all-time EthicalQuote ranking across 10 industries. [...]