MULTINATIONALS AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY 29
Manufacturers Associations has, predictably, "strongly opposed" the concept of an essential drug list on medical and economic grounds, and argued that such a list would lead to worsening of health care standards. For a detailed description of the rationalization in Sri Lanka sec Bibile, op. cit. This is argued in S Lall, The Growth of th° Pharmaceutical Industry w Developing Countries, op. cit.^ where I also note that any scheme of pricing which discriminates between countries is likely to run into severe difficulties with governments which are asked to pay high prices. Thus, such a scheme would require a tripartite agreement between the TNCs, the LDC^ and the developed countries—politically an unlikely outcome.
The violent reaction of the TNC? to my study, Major Issues in Transfer of Technology to Developing Countries, op. cit., illustrates this clearly; three separate monographs were issued attacking this study and the USPMA publicly denounced it fsec SCRIP, 13 December 1975, p 2). Many of the reforms recommended there now seem acceptable or even in force, and the offer of cheap drugs by TNCs is a major admission of the inequities of the present pricing system.