SUSPECT pharmaceutical ingredients are allegedly being promoted to some of
the world鈥檚 poorest nations by the WHO, the very body charged with raising
standards of health around the world. The charges come from John Dunne, formerly
director of drug management and policies at the Geneva-based agency. He argues
that the WHO鈥檚 failure to ensure the quality of drugs supplied to developing
countries could undermine efforts to fight deadly diseases such as
tuberculosis.
Writing in the journal he now edits, Drugs Quarterly (vol 1, p 39),
Dunne is most critical of the Market News Service (MNS), a body set up in 1991
by the WHO and the International Trade Centre, also based in Geneva, to monitor
and publicise the prices of pharmaceutical ingredients. The objective was to
alert developing countries to sources of cheap ingredients so that they could
manufacture their own drugs instead of being forced to import expensive
brand-name products.
Dunne, who retired in 1995, claims that the MNS鈥檚 monthly bulletins could
promote substandard ingredients from sources which may be unreliable. He notes
that a third of the entries in the May bulletin do not meet current
pharmacopoeial specifications. Around 60 per cent originate in China or India,
and only one of the 304 entries comes from North America, where manufacturing
standards are strictest.
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鈥淓ither a drug meets a quality standard or it doesn鈥檛,鈥� Dunne told New
快猫短视频. 鈥淲hen it鈥檚 a question of treating diseases such as TB with drugs
of doubtful quality, it鈥檚 a crime against humanity.鈥� Dunne argues that the MNS
should check on the quality of drug ingredients, rather than simply reporting on
sources and prices.
He claims that the WHO鈥檚 leadership suppressed similar criticisms of the MNS
made in 1994 by the agency鈥檚 own Expert Committee on Specifications for
Pharmaceutical Preparations. A draft report from the committee, circulated
internally, spoke of 鈥渟erious concerns鈥� about the promotion of products with
outdated specifications 鈥渙ffered by unnamed sources under the WHO flag鈥�. The
report was published in June this year, but with criticisms of the MNS
deleted.
The WHO rejects Dunne鈥檚 accusations, arguing that the MNS was never set up to
do anything other than list the market prices of pharmaceutical raw materials.
鈥淲e agree that there鈥檚 a problem with quality assurance of pharmaceutical
ingredients reaching poorer countries, but the inference that the MNS is
contributing to that is something we鈥檝e no support for,鈥� says Jonathan Quick,
director of the WHO鈥檚 Action Programme on Essential Drugs. 鈥淣one of the users
has ever complained.鈥�