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Biotech Conferences in SD and Philly | ||||||
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From June 19 to 22, 2005, a powerful lobbying consortium, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), is holding its annual international convention in downtown Philadelphia. And while more than 10,000 biotech industry leaders gather to plan the expansion of their corporate control over life itself, grassroots activists will once again converge to confront them and expose the truth that the experimental science they call “innovation” really spells “Biodevastation” for human health, food security, local autonomy and biodiversity. SD Convention Tuesday | BioDev.org | Infoshop.org | ||||||
From June 19 to 22, 2005, a powerful lobbying consortium, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), is holding its annual international convention in downtown Philadelphia. And while more than 10,000 biotech industry leaders gather to plan the expansion of their corporate control over life itself, grassroots activists will once again converge to confront them and expose the truth that the experimental science they call “innovation” really spells “Biodevastation” for human health, food security, local autonomy and biodiversity. While protesters at past BIO conventions have tended to focus their critiques on the dangers of Monsanto, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and “Frankenfoods,” in 2005, the emphasis is likely to center more on medicine itself, as well as the broad social implications of its commodification. This is due, in part, to the Philadelphia’s status as a hub where “Big Pharma” dominates. Eighty percent of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies are within a 50-mile radius of Philadelphia. New Jersey, in particular, has the USA’s largest concentration of businesses that produce prescription pharmaceuticals, and it is home to the national or global headquarters of Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Aventis. These corporations, and others like New York’s Pfizer and Pittsburgh-based Bayer, will probably constitute a bigger-than-usual presence at BIO 2005. The pharmaceutical aspects of biotech also warrant our attention following recent scandals that have rocked high-profile drugs and have captured huge corporate media attention. In response to a study showing that patients who take Vioxx face four times the risk of heart attack compared to those taking a placebo, Merck removed this popular anti-inflammatory drug (along with its two-and-a-half billion dollars in annual sales) from the market in September. Vioxx may have prompted heart attacks in as many as 136,000 people since its 1999 introduction, and Merck faces the prospect of bankruptcy from class-action lawsuits. Chilling company documents revealing that Merck had known for years about the escalated risk of cardiovascular failure may pound the final nail in its coffin. One internal marketing guide, entitled “Dodge Ball Vioxx,” instructed salespeople to avoid direct answers regarding the health consequences of Vioxx, with one catchall remedy to hard questioning: “dodge!” That is precisely what Merck’s rival, Pfizer, has attempted to do since the December disclosure of similar problems with its top-selling painkillers Celebrex and Bextra. Pfizer claims that the findings are not conclusive and plans to keep selling the drugs. The bad news for Big Pharma doesn’t end there. Also in December, AstraZeneca reported that a trial of Iressa, a lung cancer drug approved in the US last year, showed that it does not prolong lives; Eli Lilly warned doctors that Strattera, its drug to treat children’s “attention deficit disorder,” had caused severe liver injury in at least two patients; and Johnson & Johnson was sued by a 7 year-old girl who suffered permanent blindness as an allergic reaction to Children’s Motrin. More generally, a backlash of consumers against high drug prices is emerging, patent licenses on old drugs are running out, and the number of new drugs has declined sharply since the mid-1990s despite increases in annual spending on research and development. On top of all that, Michael Moore has started filming his next documentary, provisionally entitled Sicko and due for release in two years, about the pharmaceutical industry. With Big Pharma facing such a “perfect storm” of problems, the time is ripe for activists to turn up the heat with a radical critique that exposes the underlying, systemic causes of these tragic failures and scandals. As Dr. Matthias Rath, author of Making Health a Human Right, has persuasively argued, the pharmaceutical industry, by its very nature, is unable to produce medicines or treatments that prevent or eradicate diseases. Because Big Pharma depends on the repeated sale of drugs for its profits, elimination of disease destroys the market for its products. Accordingly, 80 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs currently available on the world market have no positive, durable impact on health but merely mask symptoms. Due to this, today’s most common ailments continue to spread despite the fact that effective, often natural, non-patentable alternatives are available. Details of the convention, you are invited! Are you interested in potential partnerships with Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Qualcomm, Medtronic or Johnson & Johnson? If so, attend some very valuable CALBIO sessions created to help the business development professionals in the life science industry. On behalf of BIOCOM’s Steering Committee, you are invited to this exciting event at the San Diego Marriott on March 22, 2005 from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. (conference and dinner). CALBIO Conference Member $300.00 Non Member $375.00 Annual Dinner Member $150.00 Non Member $175.00 Table (10 tickets) $1500 San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina 333 West Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101 Business Attire Please click here to register or call Shaye Testagrossa @ 858.455.0300 for more information.
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