Re* **This seminar will take place online, and a link will be e-mailed the morning of the event***
The Health Inc: Corporations, Capitalism, and the commercial determinants of health seminar series is co-hosted by the Centre for Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency, and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector.
Abstract
The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines showcased the promise of rapid translation of research into global health interventions. However, countries in the Global South faced, and continue to face, great difficulties in accessing vaccines. This seminar will discuss the root causes of global disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, including key commercial determinants of health such as the commodification of essential medicines and intellectual property regimes. Low and middle-income countries, and especially African nations, prioritized a TRIPS wavier and regional manufacturing capacity as ways to address vaccine equity. In this seminar, researchers will discuss initiatives on the African continent around vaccine manufacturing and the promises and challenges posed by vaccine hoarding, intellectual property rights, pricing, global health law and pandemic treaties to discuss the current state of vaccine equity and what might happen in a future pandemic.
Suggested readings:
Forman, L., Jackson, C., and Fajber, K. (2023). Can we move beyond vaccine apartheid? Examining the determinants of the COVID-19 vaccine gap. Global Public Health, 18(1), 1-18.
Sekalala, S., Forman, L., Hodgson, T., Mulumba, M., Namyalo-Ganafa, H., & Meier, B. M. (2021). Decolonising human rights: how intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine. BMJ global health, 6(7), e006169. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006169
Summary of the series
The corporation is arguably the most powerful social and economic institution globally, with unprecedented power to shape scientific evidence, public policy, and lifestyles. Corporations share practices including advertising, public relations, and lobbying that are common across industries and which impact population health and health equity. For example, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are currently the leading cause of mortality globally and account for 71% of all deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO).1 The main risk factors for developing NCDs as identified by the WHO include harmful alcohol drinking, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and the consumption of unhealthy diets rich in overly processed foods.2 The United Nations has addressed NCDs in their Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4, which is to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030.3 At the same time, the medically-related industry, including pharmaceutical, medical device, infant formula, and health technology companies have pervasive influence over the production of health evidence, the dissemination of health innovations, and the development of clinical practice and health policy. Critical public health analysis of the power of the corporate sector in influencing public health outcomes informed the field referred to as the commercial determinants of health. The Lancet Global Health defines the commercial determinants of health as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health”.4 Corporate practices can thus be critically examined and strategically challenged in order to contribute to healthy, evidence-based public policy solutions.5 In 2021, The Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Centre for Global Health in partnership with the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto launched a seminar series entitled, “Health Inc.: Corporations, Capitalism, and the Commercial Determinants of Health.” The objective of this seminar series is to create a forum to promote conversations, research training and collaboration across sectors and disciplines regarding the impact of corporations and other commercial determinants of health.
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