CSR: a catalyst for corporate contribution to global health governance? A case study from the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Over the past twenty years international health and development agencies (WHO, 1997, 2005; UN, 2002; World Bank, 2002; WEF, 2011) have gradually advocated towards a participation of the private for-profit sector, and especially large multinational corporations (MNCs), in global population health promotion and disease prevention. Participation has been justified in terms of the socioeconomic agency of corporations in a globalized world, as well as connected to the positive and negative social, environmental and health externalities consequent to business manufacturing, distribution and marketing practices.