ASH Daily News for 09/10/2001
HEADLINES
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ASH Daily News
9 October 2001
Headlines
Broughton’s Outburst
Genmab in link with Immunex
Full Text
Broughton’s Outburst
According to the Guardian, Martin Broughton, chairman of British American Tobacco went on to the warpath in Hong Kong.
Attending a World Tobacco Symposium held there, Mr Broughton is reported to have let out a lungful of pent-up frustrations, accusing the tobacco activists of fighting a ‘guerrilla war’ intended to hound out the industry out of existence.
But to shore up morale in an increasingly troubled industry, he said that a ‘smoke-free world’ is little more than a pipe dream, and an illiberal one at that. At which point he advises world governments on the best approach available to them for effective tobacco control: to work towards a gradual reduction in smoking, work towards safer cigarettes and educate the young about the risks involved with smoking.
The BAT chairman said his company would cooperate with these aims. However, as the article points out, his posturing is slightly at odds with the facts on the ground relating to his company: the persistent claims that BAT is complicit in cigarette smuggling is coupled with revelations that the company uses a Swiss bank account to channel billions of cigarettes to the godforsaken island of Aruba, a tax haven off the coast of Venezuela amongst numerous other irregularities within the company ethos.
Of late Broughton’s language has become noticeably stronger – like many in the industry, he is rattled. The World Health Organisation and the European commission are becoming increasingly imaginative in their efforts to restrict tobacco firms’ activities.
Link to full text of Martin Broughton speech: http://www.batmalaysia.com/CorporateInformation/pressRelease.htm
Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2001
Genmab in link with Immunex
Genmab, the Danish biotech company, is to collaborate with Immunex, one of the leading US biotechnology groups on a new treatment for lymphoma, cancer of the lymph system.
Genmab is also staring work on a treatment for a range of tumours including breast, lung, colon and ovarian cancers with Scancell an privately held UK company developing products based on the Cancer Research Campaign research.
Link to full article: http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011009001727
Source: Financial Times, 9 October 2001
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