1. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 1 http://design-and-determination.com/gender-health.html Gender and health: a social movements’ agenda for Big Pharma Margaret Grieco, Professor of Transport and Society, Napier University and Salaried Visiting Full Professor, Cornell University Email: m.grieco@napier.ac.uk mg294@cornell.edu m.grieco@napier.ac.ukmg294@cornell.edum.grieco@napier.ac.ukmg294@cornell.edu

2. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 2 1. Introduction: health, gender and the globalizing of knowledge n Not one of the chief scientists or heads of research at any of the major pharmaceutical companies is a woman. Why that's the case is much less clear. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/309/5735/724 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/309/5735/724 n International People’s Health University, Nicaragua http://www.iphcglobal.org/iphu.org/ http://www.iphcglobal.org/iphu.org/ n one of its courses http://www.iphcglobal.org/iphu.org/curseinfo.htm http://www.iphcglobal.org/iphu.org/curseinfo.htm On-line activist health personnel linked to universities provide one form of new social action in health, n http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/cd_action.cfm http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/cd_action.cfm global social movements around meeting the challenge of AIDS/HIV provide another

3. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 3 Social justice issues have been firmly placed on the Big Pharma agenda n In this context, Big Pharma has come under challenge http://www.naturalhealthcoalition.ca/big_pharma.htm n The regulation of food supplements undermines the unregulated traditional health space of ‘wise women’ http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james24.htm http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dscodex.html http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/07/12/european_court_deci des_food_supplements_directive_may_go_ahead.htmhttp://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/07/12/european_court_deci des_food_supplements_directive_may_go_ahead.htm n Social movements around gender and health are now a feature of the modern political scene http://www.igtn.org/pdfs/186_Dec02bulletin.pdf

4. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 4 2. HIV/AIDS: from pricing out survival to ensuring gender equity in provision. n HIV/AIDS drugs remain highly cost prohibitive pharmaceutical companies refuse to grant licenses to allow generic drugs to be produced, which would significantly reduce prices and increase access to lifesaving medications. http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/cd_action.cfm http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/cd_action.cfm n Major Big Pharma player as US Global AIDS Coordinator http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/26580.htm n HIV/AIDS as women’s disease within Africa for example, there are particular features of the female body which make women more vulnerable to the disease http://web.cortland.edu/wagadu/issue2/lesetedi.html http://web.cortland.edu/wagadu/issue2/lesetedi.html n Center For Gender and Health Equity submission to US Global AIDS coordinator on the web see Gender, AIDS, and ARV Therapies: Ensuring that Women Gain Equitable Access to Drugs within U.S. Funded Treatment Initiatives http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/TreatmentAccessFeb2004.pdf http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/TreatmentAccessFeb2004.pdf microbicides as a technology which would particularly benefit women in the context of HIV/AIDS also advocated by the International Community of Women Living with AIDS http://www.icw.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=25

5. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 5 n The social movement pressure to lower the prices of critical drugs and to extend coverage of HIV/AIDS treatment by the direct lobbying Big Pharma http://www.afrol.com/html/Categories/Health/backgr_medicine_poverty.htm n Influence of lobbying via governments and international institutions. the pressure to discard unjust international arrangements in the context of regional health crises grows http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/10/ftaa1029-bck.htm http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/10/ftaa1029-bck.htm the protection of patents at the cost of public health, including women’s health, becomes increasingly unacceptable http://www.avert.org/generic.htm http://www.avert.org/generic.htm http://www.icw.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=198

6. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 6 3 A directable market?: the medicalisation of ‘women’s problems’ n H. Hartley "Big Pharma" in our bedrooms: an analysis of the medicalization of women's sexual problems http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/680869/descript ion#descriptionhttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/680869/descript ion#description n The growing health burden caused by the continued massive selling of sickness -- and of harmful drugs. http://www.naturalhealthcoalition.ca/big_pharma.htm n Hot flush for Big Pharma http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7411/400 n History of Depo Provera http://www.journalism.ubc.ca/thunderbird/2005.03/features/depoprovera.html http://www.abcinternetmarketing.com/depo-provera/links.html n Blockbuster medicalisation of women’s biology http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/192

7. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 7 4. Engulfing the alternative: the battle of the supplements n Folk practices harnessed as product under patent http://www.bayeraspirin.com/questions/hundred_aspirin.htm n Breaking the Pattern – the San people and hoodia http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2883087.stm n Food supplements under international regulation http://www.standardprocess.com/lit/Other/05_0727_CodexAndDS. Revised.pdf http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james24.htmhttp://www.standardprocess.com/lit/Other/05_0727_CodexAndDS. Revised.pdf http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james24.htm

8. Margaret Grieco - Gender and health – March 2006 8 5. Conclusion: purchasing authority n Tension and contradictions in the academy http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0222-05.htm n Further links on this topic: http://www.biopsychiatry.com/bigpharma/academia-money.html http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-summary-and-much- documentation-of.htmlhttp://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-summary-and-much- documentation-of.html http://www.biopsychiatry.com/bigpharma/academia-money2.html n “A pharmaceutical giant has promised to give a full guarantee of independence to academic researchers whose work it funds in a move that follows widespread concern over the company's handling of a major UK drugs study”. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1718179,00.html