A second major UK health body has cut ties with an Israeli drug firm after coming under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners. The Royal College of Pharmacy has dropped Teva UK, the British arm of the global medicines producer Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a sponsor of and exhibitor at its annual conference next month. Its decision comes after that of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) last week to cut its longstanding ties with Teva UK.
The RCN, which represents 500,000 UK nurses, dropped Teva as a sponsor of both the union and an event on headache and migraine. The Royal College of Pharmacy is the professional body for Britain’s 34,000 pharmacists. Teva UK was due to be an exhibitor at four of its events as part of a £15,000 deal, the college said.
A spokesperson said it had taken its decision after realising that unspecified Teva Pharmaceuticals’ “activities”, uncovered by a “due diligence review”, did not align with its values. It did not explain which activities it had concerns about but said the move was decided by its executive team after it became a charity in April, which led to it reviewing its policies. But Teva, which specialises in producing generic rather than developing new drugs, has a poor track record of corporate malfeasance.
Teva said it was “disappointed” at being dropped and that healthcare should not become “politicised”. The college’s move comes after the circulation of an open letter by campaigners including UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) and signed by individual pharmacists and other health professionals. The letter highlighted that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society – the Royal College of Pharmacy’s predecessor – had responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by no longer investing any of its money in funds that involved Russian firms.
It urged the Royal College of Pharmacy to “apply the same ethical scrutiny to its investments and commercial partnerships in relation to Israel”. UKHPRC welcomed the RCN and Royal College of Pharmacy’s decisions. Medical royal colleges are the bodies that represent different types of doctors in the UK professionally, such as GPs and surgeons.
UKHPRC is now urging other royal colleges which have or have previously had commercial relationships with Teva to shun the company. They include the royal colleges representing GPs, psychiatrists and hospital doctors, which have had sponsorship arrangements with Teva in recent years. They have shown that a sponsor’s cheque need not come with the college’s conscience thrown in.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
