right to health vs. pharmaceutical industry?

Students at Harvard’s Medical School are challenging the ties between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry, or more specifically the influence that such ties have on the teaching of some professors at HMS, reports the IHT.

Seems like a good poignant time to revisit the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines as spelled out by outgoing Special Rapporteur on the (human) right to health, Paul Hunt.

The Preamble highlights that “Almost 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines; improving access to existing medicines could save 10 million lives each year, 4 million of them in Africa and South-East Asia.” Acknowledging that it is the States who bear the primary responsibility to ensure access to the highest attainable standard of health – and therewith medicines – the Guidelines stress that “Pharmaceutical companies, including innovator, generic and biotechnology companies, have human rights responsibilities in relation to access to medicines.”