Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, USA.
PLoS Med. 2010 Sep 28;7(9):e1000343. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000343.
The human rights responsibilities of drug companies have been considered for years by nongovernmental organizations, but were most sharply defined in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August 2008. The "Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines" include responsibilities for transparency, management, monitoring and accountability, pricing, and ethical marketing, and against lobbying for more protection in intellectual property laws, applying for patents for trivial modifications of existing medicines, inappropriate drug promotion, and excessive pricing. Two years after the release of the Guidelines, the PLoS Medicine Debate asks whether drug companies are living up to their human rights responsibilities. Sofia Gruskin and Zyde Raad from the Harvard School of Public Health say more assessment is needed of such responsibilities; Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. argues that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health; and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla introduce Mr. Hunt's work as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, regarding the human rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines.
多年来，非政府组织一直在审议制药公司的人权责任，但在 2008 年 8 月向联合国大会提交的联合国卫生权利特别报告员的报告中，这一责任得到了最明确的界定。《药品公司与获得药品有关的人权准则》包括透明度、管理、监测和问责制、定价和道德营销方面的责任，反对在知识产权法中争取更多保护、对现有药品的微小修改申请专利、不当药品促销和过高定价。在准则发布两年后，《公共科学图书馆·医学》的辩论文章询问制药公司是否履行了其人权责任。哈佛大学公共卫生学院的 Sofia Gruskin 和 Zyde Raad 表示，需要对这些责任进行更多评估；默克公司全球公共政策和企业责任副总裁 Geralyn Ritter 认为，多个利益攸关方可以为帮助各国实现健康权做更多的工作；Paul Hunt 和 Rajat Khosla 介绍了 Hunt 先生作为享有能达到的最高健康标准的人权问题特别报告员的工作，涉及制药公司的人权责任和药品获取问题。
