Corporate death factory
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 14 October 2015 04:15
- Written by editor
A massive pharma industry conference is happening right now. And companies like Pfizer are still refusing to clean up killer bugs from their supply chains.
Can you tweet and demand they act? It will appear right on conference social media screens.
Send a tweetA,
We take medicine to get healthy. But big pharma companies like Pfizer and Teva are still risking the lives of millions to make a quick profit.
Groundbreaking research by SumOfUs has shown how dirty drug manufacturing is helping fuel the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. And yet, after over 140,000 of us signed a petition and provided Pfizer and Teva with the facts, the companies are refusing to listen and hoping we'll go away.
But RIGHT NOW, a huge industry conference is happening, and we can shine a giant spotlight on these companies and demand they drop their dirty suppliers. We're already on the ground at the conference -- let's get on the social media screens at the venue, too.
Sending a tweet is the most important thing right now -- thousands of people in the industry will see it straight away at the conference. But if you don't have Twitter, you can also spread the message on Facebook.
Only if you don't have Twitter, click here to post the campaign on Pfizer's Facebook page
Or, click here to post the campaign on Teva's Facebook page
Months of behind-the-scenes digging into big pharma's secretive operations has revealed these links for the first time. Pfizer and others are putting their profits ahead of our health, by buying cheap antibiotics from dangerous factories with a string of serious environmental and safety violations.
These factories are dumping raw antibiotic waste straight into rivers and waterways, in breach of even China's lax environmental regulations, and creating the perfect breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant superbugs. As these superbugs spread globally, the World Health Organization is already sounding the alarm. The UK's Chief Medical Officer has called antibiotic resistance a "catastrophic threat" that could set modern health care back 200 years, and kill millions globally.
The spread of superbugs means that infectious diseases like gonorrhoea and pneumonia could become untreatable, and we could return to an era when a simple cut could kill.
Overprescription of antibiotics and widespread use in factory farms are two of the known culprits behind antibiotic resistance. But pollution generated by the massive antibiotics production industry is an overlooked hidden killer. By dumping antibiotic waste into the environment, these factories create huge breeding grounds for superbugs. Concentrations of antibiotics in polluted waterways can be as high as in the bloodstream of someone on a full strength dose of antibiotics. And these are the factories that Pfizer, McKesson, Teva and other Western pharma giants are buying from.
This isn't just a problem for China or for Pfizer customers. Modern air travel and trade mean that the rapid spread of infectious diseases is the new reality. Infectious superbugs that thrive in the waste dumped by these polluting factories in China quickly find their way into the bodies of children, adults and the elderly around the world, with fatal consequences.
The reason this happens is simple -- Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical corporations make more money by relying on cheap, mass-produced antibiotics without strong environmental and safety procedures in place. And until now, no one has known. If we can change that, by generating a global outcry, we can get big pharma to stop buying from these dangerous factories.
Click here to tweet at @pfizer and @tevapharm right now and demand they act
Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Carys, Katherine, and the rest of us
More information:
Bad Medicine: How the pharmaceutical industry is contributing to the global rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, SumOfUs report, 10 June 2015
Indian Woman Being Treated in U.S. for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, New York Times, 9 June 2015
Watch Antibiotic Resistance Surge in One Stunning Chart, Bloomberg Business, 10 June 2015
Chief Medical Officer: Resistance to antibiotics risks health 'catastrophe', Independent, 11 March 2013
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