A second major UK health body has cut ties with an Israeli drug firm after coming under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners.<\/p>\n
The Royal College of Pharmacy has dropped Teva UK, the British arm of the global medicines producer Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a sponsor of and exhibitor at its annual conference next month.<\/p>\n
Its decision comes after that of the Royal College of Nursing<\/a> (RCN) last week to cut its longstanding ties with Teva UK. The RCN, which represents 500,000 UK nurses, dropped Teva as a sponsor of both the union and an event on headache and migraine.<\/p>\n The Royal College of Pharmacy is the professional body for Britain\u2019s 34,000 pharmacists. Teva UK was due to be an exhibitor at four of its events as part of a \u00a315,000 deal, the college said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said it had taken its decision after realising that unspecified Teva Pharmaceuticals\u2019 \u201cactivities\u201d, uncovered by a \u201cdue diligence review\u201d, did not align with its values.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Royal College of Pharmacy has decided to end Teva UK\u2019s current sponsorship and exhibition presence for our forthcoming annual conference with immediate effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThis follows a further due diligence review which has brought to our attention the possibility of certain Teva Pharmaceuticals activities which do not align with our values\u201d, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n It did not explain which activities it had concerns about but said the move was decided by its executive team after it became a charity in April, which led to it reviewing its policies. But Teva, which specialises in producing generic rather than developing new drugs, has a poor track record of corporate malfeasance.<\/p>\n Teva said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d at being dropped and that healthcare should not become \u201cpoliticised\u201d.<\/p>\n The college\u2019s move comes after the circulation of an open letter<\/a> by campaigners including UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) and signed by individual pharmacists and other health professionals.<\/p>\n The letter highlighted that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society \u2013 the Royal College of Pharmacy\u2019s predecessor \u2013 had responded to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by no longer investing any of its money in funds that involved Russian firms. It urged the Royal College of Pharmacy to \u201capply the same ethical scrutiny to its investments and commercial partnerships in relation to Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n UKHPRC welcomed the RCN and Royal College of Pharmacy\u2019s decisions. \u201cWe hope this reflects the ethical concerns that the public expects from healthcare professionals\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n Medical royal colleges are the bodies that represent different types of doctors in the UK professionally, such as GPs<\/a> and surgeons. UKHPRC is now urging other royal colleges which have or have previously had commercial relationships with Teva to shun the company. They include the royal colleges representing GPs, psychiatrists and hospital doctors, which have had sponsorship arrangements with Teva in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cThese victories should reverberate beyond the royal colleges, into NHS<\/a> boardrooms and pharmacy purchasing decisions. They have shown that a sponsor\u2019s cheque need not come with the college\u2019s conscience thrown in.<\/p>\n Dr Barrak Almoosawi, an NHS doctor and an organiser of the letter, said: \u201cNursing and pharmacy have acted; those still taking Teva\u2019s money can no longer shelter behind the excuse that nothing can be done. A royal crest carries standing. It should never serve as a fig leaf for a failure of moral courage.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024 the European Commission fined<\/a> Teva \u20ac462.6m for blocking rival firms from competing with Copaxone, its treatment for multiple sclerosis, in seven European countries for between four and nine years.<\/p>\n