[Ip-health] FW: Examining Eudoxa and their "WHO Director Must Step Down After Recent AIDS Drug Scandals"

[Michael Chung]

Over the last week, a Stockholm-based organization calling itself "Eudoxa"
has been circulating a press release that criticizes the removal of Ranbaxy
generic FDCs from the list of WHO-prequalified drugs. The release, which
speaks of a "scandal" at the WHO and calls for Director-General J.W. Lee to
resign, was aggressively targeted to journalists, discussion groups and
individual health professionals - including myself.

As an American clinician-researcher working in Kenya, a setting of high HIV
burden, I think that there should be a vigorous debate over the best ways t=
o
improve treatment access.  Like any public health program, prequalification
needs to be subjected to tough scrutiny so that it can be perfected as a wa=
y
to get safe and effective drugs in the hands of people who desperately need
them.  Particularly because the prequalification debate touches on
controversies surrounding generic drug production in the developing world, =
I
also think that those who participate in the discussion should disclose the
sources they represent.

With this in mind, I enclose some important information about Eudoxa and it=
s
relationships that should be considered when reading their press releases.

Eudoxa is a Swedish company that was incorporated in Stockholm in 2000 as a
for-profit business, and is run by five people.  As a for-profit
organization, they apparently do not have to list their contributors.  It i=
s
closely linked with the International Policy Network (IPN), a group based i=
n
the UK with an affiliate in Virginia.  The mission of IPN is to establish
and support right-wing think tanks internationally, to organize conferences
and campaigns, and to plant articles in the mainstream press.  It primarily
advocates against environmental regulations, but also campaigns on health,
"sustainable development," free trade, and IP.

Headed by Roger Bate and Julian Morris, the IPN is a sister organization of
the Atlas Economic Research Foundation which is based in the U.S.  Atlas ha=
s
no endowment as a typical foundation but instead relies on annual
contributions.  Support comes from the Scaife family ($100k/an) and the
Earhart Foundation ($193k/an).  Earhart has given $1,275,280 to Atlas since
1995, according to mediatransparency.org.  Further support for Atlas comes
from ExxonMobil, which gave $65,000 in 1998 and $50,000 during 2002.  In a
1998 letter to the Philip Morris Corporation, another contributor, Atlas
president Alejandro Chafuen reported that "thanks to the generosity of our
friends, Atlas has been able to channel more than $14 million to the
programs of the free market institutes."  Although officially non-partisan
(possibly to preserve its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status), Atlas has not hid it=
s
political allegiances. In the same letter to Philip Morris, Chafuen
expressed concern that the Clinton Administration was "debasing the
fundamentals of the American republic."

The IPN and Atlas were both founded by Antony Fisher, a British businessman
who made his fortune on factory-farmed poultry.  They began life in the U.K=
.
in 1971 as the International Institute for Economic Research; Atlas was
incorporated in the US ten years later, at which point Fisher's original
organization was renamed Atlas Foundation UK.  The British group was
constituted again as IPN in 2001, when its income increased by about 60
times according to the Disinfopedia project.  Mr. Fisher was also
responsible for the Institute for Economic Affairs, a London-based think
tank (publisher of the right-wing journal Economic Affairs) that played a
key political role during the Thatcher administration.  Mr. Morris and Mr.
Bate are also high-level staff members of this group.

There are many groups seeded or supported by IPN.  The apparent reason is t=
o
fulfill Mr. Fisher's ambition to transform 'extremist' anti-government,
radical free market ideology into a "new orthodoxy" by launching of hundred=
s
of small groups on every continent.

''I could go to India and I believe I'd have an institute going in Calcutta
and another one in Pakistan probably quite quickly through my connections,"
he boasted to the Christian Science Monitor in 1985, three years before his
death. "I just don't have the time."

Working alongside their U.S. colleagues, Mr. Morris and his associates Roge=
r
Bate and Kendra Okonski have gone some distance in realizing this objective=
.
In addition to Eudoxa, the many groups associated with IPN as members on
their website are listed below.  A Whois search lists the International
Policy Network itself as "registering organization" for several of their we=
b
domains, and most of the other domains are registered either in the U.S. or
the U.K.

Eudoxa lists on its web site an active collaboration with the Centre for a
New Europe, an organization based in Brussels whose Web site was apparently
first registered in St. Paul, Minnesota by Richard Miniter, a conservative
American pundit.  CNE has close ties with the Bush White House;  FDA Chief
Counsel Dan Troy spoke before them recently.  His talk, "Advertising: Good
For Your Health?" argued that consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals
prompts people to see their doctors, resulting in early detection of seriou=
s
problems.  A sample of one paper CNE sponsored on parallel imports states:

"An important key to the future of intellectual property protection clearly
lies in the developing countries, especially those that are currently
switching from copycat industries to research-based innovation (e.g. India)=
.
TRIPS compliance and enforcement will set the stage for the balance between
established generics producers and new companies, which will compete under =
a
regime of certain minimum intellectual property protection. Access to
medicine is not chiefly determined by the existence of patents and increase=
d
international aid to developing countries will only help insofar as it is
administered by groups, associations and corporations which are competent t=
o
supply the necessary medical infrastructure, in cooperation with government=
s
(such successful projects are currently under way in Botswana, Uganda and
Senegal). In this context, assistance and free medicines will only be
effective to the extent that property rights of the companies involved are
fully respected."

In sum, a careful examination reveals that Eudoxa is part of long-term,
organized effort to establish "research institutes" for the purposes of
corporate lobbying.  The Eudoxa press release on prequalification appears t=
o
reflect an effort by parties with a financial stake in the debate over ARV
treatment access to influence its outcome.  This is important to know.
Serious debate on issues of life and death should be restricted to those
whose affiliations, allegiances, objectives, and funding are explicitly
stated.

Michael H. Chung, MD, MPH
Senior Fellow
Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington  U.S.A.

-------------------------------

IPN affiliates:
Institute of Public Policy Analysis
Location: 6, Majolate Street, Hakeem House Onipanu - Lagos Nigeria
Website: http://www.ippanigeria.org
Registrant Name: Kendra Okonski
Registrant Organization: International Policy Network

Inter-Region Economic Network
Location: Nairobi Kenya
Website: http://www.irenkenya.org
Registrant Name: Kendra Okonski
Registrant Organization: International Policy Network

Free Market Foundation
Location: Johannesburg / Cape Town South Africa
Website: http://www.freemarketfoundation.com
Registrant Name: None Listed
Registrant Organization:  PQ Africa  (Midrand, GA, SA)
Phone: 999 999 9999
Fax: 999 999 9999

Africa Fighting Malaria
Location: Sandton 2146 South Africa
Website: http://www.fightingmalaria.org
Registrant Name: None Given
Registrant Organization: Jumpline2000 (Grove City, OH, U.S.)

Africa Freedom Network
Location:
Website: http://www.africafreedom.net
Registrant Name:
Registrant Organization:

Dreamgroup
P.O. Box 2331
St. George, Roseau 00152
Dominica

Africa Resource Bank
Location: None listed
Website: http://www.africaresourcebank.org/about_us/index.php
Registrant Name: Louis James
Registrant Organization: ISIL (Benicia, CA, U.S.)

Bazaar Chintan
Location: New Delhi India
Website: http://www.bazaarchintan.net
Registrant Name: Amir Ullah Khan (akhan@vsnl.com)

European Science and Environment Forum
Location: Cambridge UK
Website: http://www.scienceforum.net
Registrant Name: None
Registrant Organization: Jumpline 2000 (Grove City, OH, U.S.)

Foundation for Democracy in Africa
Location: None listed
Website: http://www.democracy-africa.org
Registrant Name: Konstantine Kokorelis
Registrant Organization: Konstantine Kokorelis (Miami, FL, U.S.) Kenya
Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Website: http://www.kenyaweb.com/economy/policies/index.html
Registrant Name: None listed
Registrant Organization:

Form-Net Africa Ltd.
PO Box 38797
Nairobi

Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and
Institutions
Location: India
Website: http://www.sristi.org/
Registrant Name: Anil K Gupta
Registrant Organization: Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, Gujarat=
)

Action Research Community Health
Location: Mangrol, Gujarat India

Institute of Public Affairs
Location: Melbourne Australia
Website: http://www.ipa.org.au

Making Our Economy Right
Location: Dhaka Bangladesh
Website: http://www.moer.org
Registrant Name:Mark Sega
Registrant Organization: Namegiant Ltd. (London)

Liberty Institute
Location: New Delhi New Delhi India
Website: http://www.libertyindia.org
Registrant Name: Kendra Okonski
Registrant Organization: International Policy Network

Centre for Civil Society
Location: New Delhi India
Website: http://www.ccsindia.org
Registrant Name: None
Registrant Organization: Center for Civil Society - Ind (Farmington Hills,
MI, U.S.)

www.worldgrowth.org
Registrant Name:Fergco Pty Ltd (Mt Pleasant, WA, AU)

Institute of Economic Affairs
Location: 2 Lord North Street London UK
Website: http://www.iea.org.uk

Open Republic Institute
Location: Dublin Ireland
Website: http://www.openrepublic.org
Registrant Name: Michael Sharpe
Registrant Organization: Insight Web Marketing ltd

Association for Liberal Thought (Liberal D=FC=FE=FCnce Toplugu)
Location: G.M.K. Bulvar=FD, 108/17 Ankara Turkey
Website: http://www.liberal-dt.org.tr/index.htm

Centre for the New Europe
Location: Rue de Luxembourg 23 Brussels Belgium
Website: http://www.cne-network.org
Registrant Name: James Rogers
Registrant Organization: richardminiter.com (St. Paul, MN, U.S.)

Eudoxa
Location: Sveav=E4gen 133 Stockholm Sweden
Website: http://www.eudoxa.se/usa/index.html

Timbro
Location: Stockholm Sweden
Website: http://www.timbro.com
Registrant Name: Karl Bengtsson
Registrant Organization: Timbro - SFN (TIMBRO-DOM)

Centro de Divulgacion del Conocimiento Economico
Location: Caracas Venezuela
Website: http://www.cedice.org.ve

Fundacion DL
Location: Calle 25 Norte 5 A - 43 Of 202 Cali Colombia
Website: http://www.fundaciondl.org
Registrant Name: None listed
Registrant Organization: Fundacion DL

Centro Interdisciplinar de Etica e Economia Personalista
Location: Rua Humaita 282, apt 405 bloco 1, Humaita Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Libertad y Desarrollo
Location: Santiago Chile
Website: http://www.lyd.com
Registrant Name: None listed
Registrant Organization:

Fundacion Libertad y Desarrollo  (24207709O)
San Crescente 551
Santiago, UC
CL
Phone: 999 999 9999
Fax: 999 999 9999

Fundacion Libertad Democracia y Desarrollo
Location: Santa Cruz Bolivia
Website: http://www.fulided.org/
Registrant Name: Joerg Dudzinski
Registrant Organization: hyro-mediaservice e.K. (Schwaebisch Gmuend, DE)

Instituto de Libre Empresa
Location: Lima Peru
Website: http://www.ileperu.org
Registrant Name:Jose Luis Tapia-Rocha
Registrant Organization:Instituto de Libre Empresa

Montreal Economic Institute / lL'Institut =E9conomique de Montr=E9al
Location: Montreal, Quebec Canada
Website: http://www.iedm.org
Registrant Name: None Listed
Registrant Organization: Institut Economique de Montreal
Phone: 999 999 9999
Fax: 999 999 9999

Cordell Hull Institute
Location: Washington DC USA