Allegations of pharmaceutical group's planned opposition to So. Africa reforms to increase access to medicines - company responses/non-responses
In January 2014, the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (IPASA) was accused of planning and funding an advocacy campaign on behalf of its member companies. The campaign allegedly sought to oppose South Africa’s efforts to introduce intellectual property law reforms that would allow for patents belonging to IPASA’s member companies to be limited, and for cheaper generic versions to be produced...[Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited IPASA member companies to respond. Responses were received from Allergan, AstraZeneca, Baxter, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Galderma, GE Health, IPASA, Johnson & Johnson, Merck (MSD), Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche, Takeda. Responses have not been received from Abbott, Abbvie, Alcon, Amgen, Covidien, Eli Lilly, Ferring, Norgine, Sanoti-Aventis, Servier. We will indicate here whether these companies respond or not]