Environmental activists today infiltrated CPhI “in protest against the industry’s role in the global rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria”
Chanting “Stop Superbugs Now! End Dirty Pharma Production!” activists from the International Committee of Spanish NGO Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists in Action) and global consumer watchdog SumOfUs temporarily disrupted proceedings at the venue.
A video of the stunt can be seen here: https://twitter.com/ecologistas/status/654228752868753408
The stunt took place alongside a coordinated online action to raise awareness of the global pharmaceutical industry’s role in contributing to the rise of bacterial resistance to antibiotics by outsourcing production to polluting factories in China and India. Named ‘The Great Superbug Challenge!, it pitted pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Teva against each other in a competition to clean up their supply chains.
A report published by SumOfUs earlier this year claims to have “exposed how Pfizer and Teva and other industry leaders, have sourced active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from some of these polluting factories”. The majority of antibiotic APIs are produced in China, where lax environmental regulation and enforcement leads to improper disposal of pharmaceutical manufacturing waste. The group says that studies have shown that this could lead to the creation of drug-resistant bacteria, also called superbugs, that are contributing to a major global health crisis.
Paul Ferris, Campaign Director at SumOfUs said: “By turning a blind eye to pollution in their supply chains, Pfizer and Teva are complicit in fuelling what could become a public health crisis of global proportions. We are appalled by the negligent behaviour of these multi-billion dollar corporations who should know better. We call on them to clean up their supply chains and immediately blacklist polluting suppliers.”
According to the UK government-backed AMR Review, drug-resistant infections could kill up to 10 million people annually by 2050 and make medical procedures, such as hip replacements, organ transplants and chemotherapy impossible. Two other major causes of bacterial resistance to antibiotics are the excess and inappropriate administration of antibiotics in human medicine and the routine use of antibiotics in intensive livestock farming.
Mariano Gonzalez Tejada, of Ecologistas en Acción said: “Instead of spending millions of euros lobbying for a trade agreement between the United States and Europe (TTIP), pharmaceutical companies should be working to prevent the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the tremendous potential impact on global human health by putting a stop to irresponsible manufacturing in their supply chain. Their failure to address pollution scandals in India and China points to regulatory failure in the pharmaceutical sector, which would become even worse with a weakening of environmental standards under TTIP.”
