BUKO Pharma-Kampagne

Last updated

BUKO Pharma-Kampagne is an independent organization based in Bielefeld, Germany, which watches over the marketing practices of German pharmaceutical companies.

Contents

It has gained wider recognition after being described in a bestselling novel, The Constant Gardener by John le Carré. BUKO was mentioned explicitly in the author's afterword as a real counterpart to the novel's fictitious Hippo organisation (also based in Bielefeld, Germany).

BUKO is partially financed by the European Union and mostly by private supporters.

In early 1981 following a conference in Geneva, co-sponsored by the International Organization of Consumers Unions and by BUKO, it set up Health Action International. [1] [2] [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare industry</span> Economic sector focused on health

The healthcare industry is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care. It includes the generation and commercialization of goods and services lending themselves to maintaining and re-establishing health. The modern healthcare industry includes three essential branches which are services, products, and finance, and may be divided into many sectors and categories and depends on the interdisciplinary teams of trained professionals and paraprofessionals to meet the health needs of individuals and populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicinal plants</span> Plants or derivatives used to treat medical conditions in humans or animals

Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection against insects, fungi, diseases, and herbivorous mammals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigecycline</span> Chemical compound

Tigecycline, sold under the brand name Tygacil, is an tetracycline antibiotic medication for a number of bacterial infections. It is a glycylcycline administered intravenously. It was developed in response to the growing rate of antibiotic resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, and E. coli. As a tetracycline derivative antibiotic, its structural modifications has expanded its therapeutic activity to include Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms, including those of multi-drug resistance.

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), founded in 1950 and based in Washington, D.C., is an independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. AMSA is a student-governed national organization. They have a membership of 68,000 medical students, premedical students, interns, medical residents and practicing physicians across the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anidulafungin</span> Antifungal medication

Anidulafungin (INN) is a semisynthetic echinocandin used as an antifungal drug. It was previously known as LY303366. It may also have application in treating invasive Aspergillus infection when used in combination with voriconazole. It is a member of the class of antifungal drugs known as the echinocandins; its mechanism of action is by inhibition of (1→3)-β-D-glucan synthase, an enzyme important to the synthesis of the fungal cell wall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health policy</span> Policy area that deals with the health system of a country or other organization

Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society". According to the World Health Organization, an explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future; it outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abiraterone acetate</span> Chemical compound

Abiraterone acetate, sold under the brand name Zytiga among others, is a medication used to treat prostate cancer. Specifically it is used together with a corticosteroid for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and metastatic high-risk castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). It should either be used following removal of the testicles or along with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analog. It is taken by mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phenoxymethylpenicillin</span> Chemical compound

Phenoxymethylpenicillin, also known as penicillin V (PcV) and penicillin VK, is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. Specifically it is used for the treatment of strep throat, otitis media, and cellulitis. It is also used to prevent rheumatic fever and to prevent infections following removal of the spleen. It is given by mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Streeten</span> Austrian-born British economics professor (1917–2019)

Paul Patrick Streeten was an Austrian-born British economics professor. He was a professor at Boston University, US until his retirement. He has been a distinguished academic working on development economics since the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Agency for Quality in Medicine</span>

The German Agency for Quality in Medicine (AEZQ) - in German "Ärztliches Zentrum für Qualität in der Medizin (ÄZQ)", established in 1995 and located in Berlin, co-ordinates healthcare quality programmes with special focus on evidence-based medicine, medical guidelines, patient empowerment, patient safety programs, and quality management.

Medication costs, also known as drug costs are a common health care cost for many people and health care systems. Prescription costs are the costs to the end consumer. Medication costs are influenced by multiple factors such as patents, stakeholder influence, and marketing expenses. A number of countries including Canada, parts of Europe, and Brazil use external reference pricing as a means to compare drug prices and to determine a base price for a particular medication. Other countries use pharmacoeconomics, which looks at the cost/benefit of a product in terms of quality of life, alternative treatments, and cost reduction or avoidance in other parts of the health care system. Structures like the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and to a lesser extent Canada's Common Drug Review evaluate products in this way.

There are multiple market layers for wood products. Each country has its own domestic market that may be connected to a regional or global market. Timber supply to domestic markets in many tropical forest countries is largely provided by informal logging, namely chainsaw milling. Regional and global markets involve producer, passthrough, processing, and consumer countries.

The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases was a collaborative disease eradication programme launched on 30 January 2012 in London. It was inspired by the World Health Organization roadmap to eradicate or prevent transmission for neglected tropical diseases by the year 2020. Officials from WHO, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's 13 leading pharmaceutical companies, and government representatives from US, UK, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania participated in a joint meeting at the Royal College of Physicians to launch this project. The meeting was spearheaded by Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, and Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Access to medicines refers to the reasonable ability for people to get needed medicines required to achieve health. Such access is deemed to be part of the right to health as supported by international law since 1946.

An unused drug or leftover drug is the medicine which remains after the consumer has quit using it. Individual patients may have leftover medicines at the end of their treatment. Health care organizations may keep larger amounts of drugs as part of providing care to a community, and may have unused drugs for a range of reasons. The unused drugs should be destroyed utterly to eliminate the toxic effects of undisposed drugs on flora and fauna. The improper disposal of unused drugs could be the reason for the contamination of Surface, Ground and Drinking Water. Discharge of unused antibiotics and disinfectants in the sewage system may ruin the aquatic life or contamination of drinking water.

Health Action International (HAI) is a non-profit organization based in The Netherlands. Established in 1981, HAI works to expand access to essential medicines through research, policy analysis and intervention projects. The organization focuses on snakebite envenoming, access to insulin and developing European policies on medicines. HAI is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an official non-state actor.

The United Nations (UN) has many microstate members. As of 1980, microstates made up one-quarter of the United Nations membership. The European microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and San Marino were accepted into the U.N. by acclamation from 1990–1993.

External reference pricing (ERP), also known as international reference pricing, is the practice of regulating the price of a medication in one country, by comparing with the price in a "basket" of other reference countries. It contrasts with internal reference pricing, where the price of one drug is compared to the domestic price of therapeutically related drugs, and with cost-plus pricing, where the price involves negotiating an acceptable markup to the unit cost to develop and produce.

Reginald Herbold Green was an American development economist who focused on African economic issues. His research focus included studying the economies of eastern and southern Africa, South African Development Community (SADC), international organizations and aid disbursement, and the Economic Commission on Africa, specializing in poverty alleviation, development enablement, and economic liberalization.

References

  1. Reich, Michael R. (1987). "Essential drugs: economics and politics in international health". Health Policy. 8 (1): 39–57. doi:10.1016/0168-8510(87)90129-1.
  2. Fazal, Anwar (1983). "The right pharmaceuticals at the right prices: Consumer perspectives". World Development. 11 (3): 265–269. doi:10.1016/0305-750X(83)90035-9. ISSN   0305-750X.
  3. Laing R, Waning B, Gray A, Ford N, 't Hoen E (2003). "25 years of the WHO essential medicines lists: progress and challenges". Lancet. 361 (9370): 1723–9. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13375-2. hdl: 10144/28005 . PMID   12767751. S2CID   12172286.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)