Globalisation:IBLF Supporters & their Activities
GlaxoSmithKline
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
GSK is on The Environmental Affairs Committee, which is an unrepresentative committee and is dominated by major polluting industries e.g Glaxo Smith Kilne, Onyz, Rolls-Royce, British Airways,Vauxhall Motors,BMW, Exxon-Mobile.
CBI claims to represent a broad section of UK business, but there are trends of clear alignment with CBI and members of the government regarding support and encouragemnet of neo-liberal economic policies e.g. regulation.
Rather than a burden, regulation can drive innovations that benefit environment, health and society as well as the economy i.e. The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005 over 100 countries showed Finland, Sweden and Norway with traditionally high environmental protection and taxation feature in the top 10 most competitive countries [1]
Animal Testing
It is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and has a direct influence on UK Government policy, including animal experimentation policy, for which it has lobbied for a relaxation of regulations.[2]
Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) got an emergency injunction rushed through the High Court on Tuesday May 9th to stop activists publishing names and addresses of shareholders. A letter from an unknown animal rights group had already been sent to at least 160 investors to warn them they had two weeks to sell their shares or be named on a website. Activists want to sever the drug giant’s links with doomed animal torturers Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
GSK actually cut ties with HLS eight years ago, after a documentary exposed some of the shocking cruelty in their animal labs - but linked up again as soon as the dust had settled a year later. Glaxo boss, Jean Pierre Garnier has been telling reporters that they’re a benevolent company really... Testing drugs on a few fluffy rabbits is OK because the goal it to save people from disease. But pharma companies spend just 0.2% of their money developing drugs for poverty related diseases like tuberculosis, which affect almost one fifth of the world’s population. Instead Glaxo prefers to pump their cash into Western vanities like slimming products, in an attempt to follow a trail of cash rather than the most common diseases.[3]
The Government publicly condemned the campaign by animal rights activists to force GSK to pull its contracts from the controversial Huntingdon Life Sciences lab. And peers have voted through a new law which will make it harder to get hold of personal details. [4]
Failing Global Health Needs
14 Million people die each year from infectious diseases, most of them in developing countries. The medical treatments available are often archaic and ineffective, especially for so-called ‘neglected diseases’ (Malaria, Tuberculosis, Sleeping Sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis), whose victims are almost exclusively from developing countries and poor. These diseases are linked with poverty and unsanitary living conditions; new drugs are desperately needed.
At present, private pharmaceutical companies control the development of new medicines. People in Developing countries, who make up 80 per cent of the world’s population, only represent about 20 per cent of worldwide medicine sales. Since these people are relatively poor, GlaxoSmithKline, along with other major pharmaceutical companies, do not see it as profitable to develop medicines for their needs, and do negligible research into medicines which would help them. “Of all annual health related research, only 0.2 per cent is spent on pneumonia, diarrhoea, and tuberculosis-three poverty related ailments which account for 18 per cent of the global disease burden.”(Oxfam, Briefing paper on GlaxoSmithKline, 2001). This failure, in effect, kills untold numbers of people every year. It is the fault of the pharmaceutical industry putting their company profits above the lives of people, but it is also the fault of governments and other bodies like the United Nations for depending on market forces to provide people with basic necessities. [5]
Products
Lucozade - The family of Lucozade products is designed to give you an edge. [6]
Ingredients - Carbonated Water, Glucose Syrup (26%), Citric Acid,Lactic Acid, Flavourings (incl. caffeine), Perservatives (Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Bisulphite), Antioxidant 9Ascorbic Acid), Colour (Sunset Yellow)[7]
Sodium benzoate (E211), an artificial food preservative. A research study published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in September 2007 showed that mixtures of artificial food colourings and sodium benzoate could affect hyperactive behaviour in susceptible children.According to the FSA, studies have also shown that sodium benzoate and other benzoates (E210, E211, E212, E213, E214, E215, E216, E217, E218 and E219) could make the symptoms of asthma and eczema worse in children who already have these conditions. Under EC guidelines, medicines should carry a warning that sodium benzoate and other benzoates may be “mildly irritant to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes”. Foods and drinks carry no such warning, despite been consumed in much greater quantities. [8]
Abbot Laboratories
Deloitte
- ↑ CBI, Corporate Lobbying and Sustainability Report 2005 accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Animal Testing accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Animal Testing accessed 23 february 2008
- ↑ Channel4 news 9 May 2006 accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Medicine Development accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Lucozade accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Lucozade ingredients accessed 23 February 2008
- ↑ Sodium Benzoate E211 accessed 23 February 2008
