Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Is an anti-anti-anti-intellectual property movement brewing? First, South Africa proposed patent-law changes that would help foster generic drugs. Then, Big Pharma and its smaller colleagues in the country's pharma association hatched a counter-offensive: a $600,000 lobbying campaign against the measure.
Now, Novo Nordisk ($NVO) has quit that group, the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (Ipasa), in protest.
"Novo Nordisk resigned from Ipasa last week (due to) disagreement on a public relations campaign proposed by Ipasa, which we felt did not serve our or the industry's interests," spokeswoman Shelley Harris told the South African publication Business Day.
Novo Nordisk may have jumped ship just in time. The Ipasa PR strategy, cooked up by Washington, D.C.-based Public Affairs Engagement, has all the makings of a scandal. It certainly has spawned some fevered rhetoric: When the news broke last week, opponents accused drugmakers of a "satanic plot" to keep affordable drugs out of patients' hands.
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/n...rma-group-over-satanic-pr-campaign/2014-01-23
Now, Novo Nordisk ($NVO) has quit that group, the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (Ipasa), in protest.
"Novo Nordisk resigned from Ipasa last week (due to) disagreement on a public relations campaign proposed by Ipasa, which we felt did not serve our or the industry's interests," spokeswoman Shelley Harris told the South African publication Business Day.
Novo Nordisk may have jumped ship just in time. The Ipasa PR strategy, cooked up by Washington, D.C.-based Public Affairs Engagement, has all the makings of a scandal. It certainly has spawned some fevered rhetoric: When the news broke last week, opponents accused drugmakers of a "satanic plot" to keep affordable drugs out of patients' hands.
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/n...rma-group-over-satanic-pr-campaign/2014-01-23