GLOBAL HEALTH IMPACT

Every year nine million people are diagnosed with tuberculosis every day over 13400 people are infected with AIDs and every thirty seconds malaria kills a child. For most of the world critical medications that treat these deadly diseases are scarce costly and growing obsolete as access to firstline drugs remains out of reach and resistance rates rise. Rather than focusing research and development on creating affordable medicines for these deadly global diseases pharmaceutical companies instead invest in commercially lucrative products for more affluent customers. Nicole Hassoun argues that everyone has a human right to health and to access to essential medicines and she proposes the Global Health Impact globalhealthimpact.orgnew system as a means to guarantee those rights. Her proposal directly addresses the pharmaceutical industrys role it rates pharmaceutical companies based on their medicines impact on improving global health rewarding highlyrated medicines with a Global Health Impact label. Global Health Impact has three parts. The first makes the case for a human right to health and specifically access to essential medicines. Hassoun defends the argument against recent criticism of these proposed rights. The second section develops the Global Health Impact proposal in detail. The final section explores the proposals potential applications and effects considering the empirical evidence that supports it and comparing it to similar ethical labels. Through a thoughtful and interdisciplinary approach to creating new labeling investment and licensing strategies Global Health Impact demands an unwavering commitment to global justice and corporate responsibility.