When it comes to cancer, we're not all in it together

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Washington, D.C. has not seen a massive citizen demonstration since the
Million Man March. Now it appears set to witness a new phenomenon, the
civic-corporate demonstration.

On September 25 and 26, thousands of people are expected to descend on The
National Mall near the U.S. Capitol for what is being called, "The March:
Coming Together to Conquer Cancer."

The March has an agenda with which few could disagree: "To make
prevention, treatment and cure of cancer top research and healthcare
priorities. To demand greater government investment in the public and
private sectors for cancer research, treatment, education and prevention.
To ensure quality cancer care for all Americans." 

But the thrust of the event seems corrupted by its embrace of Corporate
America.

Notably absent from The March's materials, for example, is a prevention
emphasis that focuses on the need to reform the corporate purveyors of
cancer. The chemical companies which dispense toxins into the workplace,
the environment and our food supply get off scot-free. Even Big Tobacco --
the easiest corporate target there is -- escapes without a mention.

The March is affirmatively linked with a host of pharmaceutical companies
and other corporations. Contributors include: Bristol-Myers Squibb,
GlaxoWellcome, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Bell Atlantic Mobile, Eli Lilly and
Company, Genentech, Oncor, Ortho Biotech, Amgen, American Oncology
Resources, OnCare, Schering Plough, Northwest Airlines, the Pharmaceutical
Researchers of America (PhRMA), Roche Laboratories, Smith Kline Beechum,
Zeneca, Abbott Laboratories, The Walt Disney Company, the Washington Post
Company, Sigal Construction and, last but not least, Morton's Restaurant
Group -- owner of Morton's of Chicago steakhouse!

These companies all want to be associated with the wholesome feelings
associated with an event like a march against cancer. The pharmaceutical
and biotech companies have a special agenda: to make sure they are viewed
as cancer-fighting allies, rather than profiteers who rip off desperate
cancer patients.

Consider Bristol-Myers Squibb, the world's leading maker of cancer drugs.
It specializes in marketing drugs that were developed by the U.S.
government and hawking them for outrageous prices.

Bristol-Myers Squibb markets Taxol, a worldwide billion-dollar-a-year
seller, prescribed primarily to those with breast and ovarian cancer.
Taxol was invented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 1991,
NIH gave Bristol-Myers Squibb the exclusive right to use NIH-funded
research on Taxol, initially for no charge. Bristol-Myers Squibb played a
very minimal role in conducting and funding the safety tests for Taxol.
Even though the company has contributed very little to the drug's
development, it has used a variety of intellectual property rules to
maintain exclusive rights to sell the drug.

Taxol costs less than 40 cents per milligram to manufacture. Bristol-Myers
Squibb sells Taxol in wholesale markets for more than $4.87 per milligram.
The cost to consumers can be more than $8.50 per milligram.

The Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Project on Technology has documented
the case of an uninsured breast cancer patient asked to pay $2,324.70 for
nine 30 milligram vials of Taxol -- a dosage level often prescribed every
3 weeks over an 18 month period.

"The fact that Bristol-Myers Squibb sells drugs is not a problem," says
James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology. "The problem
is that it charges top dollar and uninsured people in the United States
often cannot get treatment or are financially ruined" in the process of
getting treatment.

An event which bills itself as working to "ensure quality care for all
Americans" should be highlighting and challenging Bristol-Myers Squibb's
egregious drug-pricing policy, not relying on the company as an
"presenting underwriter."

Representatives of The March were not available to comment on
Bristol-Myers Squibb's or other corporations' sponsorship, or about the
focus of the demonstration.

In our corporate-dominated society, public health questions can rarely be
separated from corporate accountability issues.

Cancer is, in significant part, the product of unacknowledged corporate
violence -- addicting people to cigarettes, polluting the air, using
dangerous chemicals in the workplace. And cancer care problems are
intertwined with abusive practices -- pharmaceutical overcharges, HMO
denials of care and treatment.

The problem with The March's "we're all in this together" sentiment is
that "we" are not all in this together. Corporations like DuPont and
Philip Morris are a part -- a big part -- of the problem. A serious
attempt to "conquer cancer" must take on these companies.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor.

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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