On the heels of the ticking off of Shell's charity for acting more like a lobbying firm we now find pharmaceutical companies up to the same scam.
Roche, the Swiss drugs company, is to announce that it has set up a charity called "Cancer First" with the alleged remit of bringing "together for the first time under one banner all parties concerned with the care of all cancer patients... in Europe". The charity is 100% funded by Roche which manufactures several cancer drugs including Herceptin. The secretariat of the organisation is to be provided by Roche's PR firm, Weber Shandwick. At the core of the campaign is a controversial study by the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm that "links patient survival to the amount their government spends on drugs".
Only an unrepenant cynic would think that they might use the charity to gain access to politicians and then use that access to press for increased government funding for Herceptin, Avastin or Tarceva. Thank goodness I am an eternal optimist.
Roche, the Swiss drugs company, is to announce that it has set up a charity called "Cancer First" with the alleged remit of bringing "together for the first time under one banner all parties concerned with the care of all cancer patients... in Europe". The charity is 100% funded by Roche which manufactures several cancer drugs including Herceptin. The secretariat of the organisation is to be provided by Roche's PR firm, Weber Shandwick. At the core of the campaign is a controversial study by the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm that "links patient survival to the amount their government spends on drugs".
Only an unrepenant cynic would think that they might use the charity to gain access to politicians and then use that access to press for increased government funding for Herceptin, Avastin or Tarceva. Thank goodness I am an eternal optimist.
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