More than 50 consultants at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) have called on the State to stop using medicines manufactured by an Israeli company where “viable alternatives” are available.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli multinational, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of generic and specialist drugs. The company, which makes Sudocrem, has a big presence in Ireland and is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines to the HSE.
Teva said any boycott of its medicine could “impose a risk on the health and wellbeing” of patients.
In a letter to CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill on Friday, 57 paediatric consultants say they are concerned about “the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which has been widely recognised as meeting the legal definition of genocide by leading international authorities, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice”.
RM Block
The doctors’ letter says “we respectfully request that CHI take immediate steps to discontinue the procurement and use of pharmaceuticals manufactured by Teva where viable alternatives exist”.
It claims “Teva, as Israel’s largest pharmaceutical company, operates under the jurisdiction of and contributes to the economy of a state currently under investigation for genocide.”
It argues that taxes paid by Teva to the Israeli government “directly funds the diplomatic and military resources employed by the Israeli government to carry out a genocide and silence dissent domestically and internationally”.
“The company provides Israeli forces with medical supplies and donations. These resources have been used to slaughter patients, health professionals and utterly destroy the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza,” the letter says.
The consultants say that continuing to buy medicines from Teva “undermines CHI’s commitment to ethical and humanitarian principles”. While the letter says the consultants “do not advocate for any measure that would compromise clinical care”, they are calling on CHI to swap to “therapeutically equivalent alternatives” from Teva drugs, if they are available.
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The letter requests a meeting with Ms Nugent “to discuss this proposal in more detail and explore how CHI can implement this change effectively.”
One of the letter’s signatories, Thomas Donnelly, clinical speciality lead for general orthopaedics and trauma at CHI, said: “As consultants, we have a duty of care to all patients, and we see a direct contradiction between these very public values and the procurement of medications from Teva.”
Mr Donnelly said Teva Pharmaceuticals is “helping fund a genocide in which children have been shot, shelled, and now starved”.
“We cannot continue to be complicit in these barbaric acts against children,” he said.
A spokesman for Teva said it adheres to the “highest standards in ethics and business practices”. He said its patients “rely on regular and reliable supply of medicines” and, as one of the largest manufacturers of generic medicines, Teva remains “committed to ensuring that our quality medicines remain available to our patients, regardless of their religion, beliefs, or ethnicity”.
“Any boycott on Teva may impose a risk on the health and wellbeing of those patients, the healthcare systems we serve, our global workforce and their families,” the spokesman said.
He said Teva is “proud of our significant contribution to the State” in Ireland.
“Last year our activities directly contributed $226m to the Irish economy, and our broad portfolio of generic medicines has helped the Irish health system realise more than €1.5 billion through generic substitutions over the past decade,” he said.
CHI said its chief executive “received the letter on Friday afternoon and is reviewing same”.
The Department of Health said it “does not play a role in the procurement of any medicine”.
