Founded | 1983 |
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Founder | Peter R. Mansfield |
Website | http://www.healthyskepticism.org |
Healthy Skepticism Inc is an international non-profit organisation whose main aim is to "improve health by reducing harm from misleading drug promotion".
Healthy Skepticism was founded in 1983 with the name Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing (MaLAM). It was begun by an Australian medical student, Peter R. Mansfield, who had the idea for the organisation during his final year elective in Bangladesh in 1982. MaLAM initially focused on campaigning against questionable marketing practices in developing countries. These included the promotion of appetite stimulants, tonics and anabolic steroids to parents of malnourished children. MaLAM was modelled on Amnesty International and wrote open letters to the international headquarters of pharmaceutical companies questioning them about specific advertisements. MaLAM letters were signed by supporters around the world and contributed to many improvements in drug marketing, several products being removed from the market and many advertising claims changed. [1] [2] [3] MaLAM reported more than 450 alleged violations of the voluntary code of conduct of the drug industry in 1987, [4] and also questioned drug advertisements in Australia during 1993 to 1997 with funding from the Australian federal government.
In 2001, the organisation's name was changed to Healthy Skepticism and its work widened to include research, education and advocacy about misleading drug promotion in all countries. It has concentrated recently on raising awareness amongst health professionals of the influence that marketing techniques have on their decisions, and the psychological factors which make them vulnerable to that influence. [5]
Pharmaceutical marketing is a branch of marketing science and practice focused on the communication, differential positioning and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, like specialist drugs, biotech drugs and over-the-counter drugs. By extension, this definition is sometimes also used for marketing practices applied to nutraceuticals and medical devices.
Derek Summerfield is an honorary senior lecturer at London's Institute of Psychiatry and a member of the Executive Committee of Transcultural Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatry. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association. He has published around 150 papers and has made other contributions in medical and social sciences literature.
Alosetron, sold under the brand name Lotronex among others, is a 5-HT3 antagonist used for the management of severe diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in females only.
Matthias Rath is a doctor, businessman, and vitamin salesman. He earned his medical degree in Germany. Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements, including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research. Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc., and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.
Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement, reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.
4-Aminosalicylic acid, also known as para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and sold under the brand name Paser among others, is an antibiotic primarily used to treat tuberculosis. Specifically it is used to treat active drug resistant tuberculosis together with other antituberculosis medications. It has also been used as a second line agent to sulfasalazine in people with inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. It is typically taken by mouth.
BUKO Pharma-Kampagne is an independent organization based in Bielefeld, Germany, which watches over the marketing practices of German pharmaceutical companies.
Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) refers to the marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to consumers as patients, as opposed to specifically targeting health professionals. The term is synonymous primarily with the advertising of prescription medicines via mass media platforms—most commonly on television and in magazines, but also via online platforms.
Food marketing is the marketing of food products. It brings together the food producer and the consumer through a chain of marketing activities.
Nifuroxazide (INN) is an oral nitrofuran antibiotic, patented since 1966 and used to treat colitis and diarrhea in humans and non-humans. It is sold under the brand names Ambatrol, Antinal, Bacifurane, Diafuryl (Turkey), Benol (Pakistan), Pérabacticel (France), Antinal, Diax (Egypt), Nifrozid, Ercefuryl, Erfuzide (Thailand), Endiex (Slovakia), Enterofuryl, Pentofuryl (Germany), Nifuroksazyd Hasco, Nifuroksazyd Polpharma (Poland), Topron, Enterovid, Eskapar (Mexico), Enterocolin, Terracolin (Bolivia), Apazid (Morocco), Nifroxid (Tunisia), Nifural (Indonesia) and Septidiaryl. It is sold in capsule form and also as a suspension.
A formulary is a list of pharmaceutical drugs, often decided upon by a group of people, for various reasons such as insurance coverage or use at a medical facility. Traditionally, a formulary contained a collection of formulas for the compounding and testing of medication. Today, the main function of a prescription formulary is to specify particular medications that are approved to be prescribed at a particular hospital, in a particular health system, or under a particular health insurance policy. The development of prescription formularies is based on evaluations of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of drugs.
Etamiphylline or etamiphyllin (INN) is a xanthine intended for use as an anti-asthma agent. It has shown poor to absent effects in human clinical trials.
The alcohol industry is the segment of the commercial drink industry that is involved in the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The industry has been criticised in the 1990s for deflecting attention away from the problems associated with alcohol use. The alcohol industry has also been criticised for being unhelpful in reducing the harm of alcohol.
Sir Andrew Paul Haines, FMedSci is a British epidemiologist and academic. He was the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 2001 to 2010.
Sir Alimuddin Zumla,, FRCP, FRCPath, FRSB is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, and diseases of poverty. He is known for his leadership of infectious/tropical diseases research and capacity development activities. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to public health and protection from infectious disease. In 2012, he was awarded Zambia's highest civilian honour, the Order of the Grand Commander of Distinguished services - First Division. In 2023, for the sixth consecutive year, Zumla was recognised by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers. In 2021 Sir Zumla was elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences.
Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM) superseded the tasks and duties of Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé (AFSSAPS) on 1 May 2012. It is responsible for assessing the benefits and risks associated with the use of drugs and other medical products throughout their life-cycle. ANSM assesses the safety, efficacy and quality of these products and must balance patient safety with access to novel therapies.
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.
Julio S. G. Montaner, is an Argentine-Canadian physician, professor and researcher. He is the director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the chair in AIDS Research and head of the Division of AIDS in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and the past-president of the International AIDS Society. He is also the director of the John Ruedy Immunodeficiency Clinic, and the Physician Program Director for HIV/AIDS PHC. He is known for his work on HAART, a role in the discovery of triple therapy as an effective treatment for HIV in the late 1990s, and a role in advocating the "Treatment as Prevention" Strategy in the mid-2000s, led by Myron Cohen of the HPTN 052 trial.
Oriol Mitjà i Villar is a Catalan-born Spanish researcher and consultant physician in internal medicine and infectious diseases with expertise in poverty-related tropical diseases. He has conducted research at the Lihir Medical Centre in Papua New Guinea since 2010 on new diagnostic and therapeutic tools to eradicate yaws. He was awarded the Princess of Girona Award in the scientific research category. Currently at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, Mitjà is conducting research on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and strategies to control the infection at a community level.
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.