Nestlé
- with you every day.
Abbott-Ross
prescription pad.
Wyeth
bedsheets donated to a hospital in Taiwan.
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While companies
may not explicitly ask health workers to promote their
products, the sense of goodwill generated by gifts and
tokens provided by the companies can often persuade
health workers to subconsciously favour one company's
products over those of another. Many of the gifts offered
to health workers are displayed on desks, etc and thus
become direct promotion to mothers visiting the hospital
or clinic.
Financial
and other forms of material support are often given
to individuals and professional associations. Although
sponsorship is allowed under the Code, the line between
genuine assistance and inducement is not easily discernible
and conflicts of interest do occur. A 1996 WHA Resolution
warns about such conflicts, which may interfere with
professional support for breastfeeding.
According
to the findings of the 2000 monitoring, financial support
now goes more frequently to meetings and professional
associations rather than to individuals. Wyeth provided
fellowships and awards to nurses for attending a congress
in Mexico, it sponsored a perinatal society meeting
in the UAE and funded lunch boxes for a meeting in Taiwan.
Abbott-Ross provided file covers for a symposium. Gerber
sponsored educational sessions while Mead Johnson supported
the message centre and district breakfast meetings at
the 2000 annual conference of the American Academy of
Pediatrics. Mead Johnson also provided two awards of
US$ 10,000 each for research in paediatrics plus expenses
to the conference. Heinz Plasmon sponsored meetings,
conferences and training sessions in Italy. Nestlé sponsored
several seminars in Cambodia.
Doctors
in private clinics get lots of samples; they get passed
on to mothers.
Sometimes
there's an invoice but no payment required.
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Company
reps are in and out of doctors' offices several
times a week. During their short visits they share
scientific findings but as a punch line, they
always recommend a particular brand and leave
booklets, gifts or product samples which get passed
on to mothers. Mead Johnson, Nutricia, Hipp, Milupa,
Abbott-Ross, Wyeth, Danone, Morinaga, Meiji and
Dumex are all guilty of this practice.
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