On the occasion of tomorrow’s Annual Stockholders’ Meeting of Bayer, glokal e.V., together with the Gen-ethischen Netzwerk e.V., the BUKO Pharma-Kampagne and the Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel, is protesting against the company’s worldwide marketing offensive with the hormone implant Jadelle.

Press Release

of the Gen-ethischen Netzwerk e.V., glokal e.V., the BUKO Pharma-Kampagne as well as the Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies of the University of Kassel

Bayer HealthCare’s Jadelle contraceptive implant: protest against population policy-motivated marketing offensive

Cologne, May 27, 2015: On the occasion of Bayer’s Annual Stockholders’ Meeting, non-governmental organizations and a university department in Kassel are protesting against the company’s global marketing offensive with the hormone implant Jadelle. The organizations, which will be present at the General Assembly with their own speeches, criticize frequent side effects and a subordination of reproductive health concerns to population policy goals. They are calling for a halt to the marketing of Jadelle as part of population policy programs.

Currently, the pharmaceutical company Bayer HealthCare is using the revival of population policy goals in development policy to massively distribute the contraceptive implant Jadelle worldwide. Under the name Jadelle Access Program, the Group has been offering the five-year hormone implant at a reduced price to development programs since 2012, in exchange for a purchase guarantee of 27 million implants within six years. The target group is particularly women in those rural regions of Africa where there is no or hardly any medical infrastructure.

Side effects such as prolonged or absent bleeding, migraine headaches, weight loss or gain, depression, and hair loss are very common or frequent, according to clinical studies. The removal of the implant sewn into the upper arm requires trained medical personnel and is often associated with complications. In the 1990s, the almost identical predecessor product Norplant was the subject of worldwide protests by women’s health organizations and successful compensation claims.

According to Daniel Bendix of glokal e.V., it is particularly problematic that “Jadelle is currently being disseminated precisely in places where women cannot obtain appropriate advice on side effects or have the implants removed at any time. This is the explicit target group of the Jadelle Access Program.”

Susanne Schultz of the Gene Ethics Network criticizes the subordination of health concerns to population policy goals. “Bayer benefits from the fact that current population programs aim to reduce birth rates in African countries and increase the number of users of modern contraceptive methods. Women users’ health and agency are falling behind.” The coordinated protest action thus addresses not only Bayer HealthCare but also the German government.

In 2013, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) declared population policy to be its “cross-cutting issue” and supports the dissemination of contraceptive implants. The BMZ also cooperates with Bayer HealthCare in the context of population policy conferences and projects.

More information in:

Susanne Schultz/Daniel Bendix 2015: Fewer Children Instead of Better Care? DC projects increasingly population-focused in: Pharma Brief No. 4-5, pp. 3-6, http://www.bukopharma.de/uploads/file/Pharma-Brief/Einzelseiten/Phbf2014_04-05_BMZ_Bevoelkerungspolitik_S_3-6.pdf

Daniel Bendix/Susanne Schultz 2013: Implanted Contraception. In: Gene Ethics Information Service, no. 217, 17-19; online: http:%C3%

BUKO Pharma Campaign 2013: Contraceptive implants for the woman of the world? How a dubious drug is marketed with public help. In: Pharma-Brief No. 7, pp. 3-5.

Contacts:

Susanne Schultz, Gen-ethisches Netzwerk e.V., susanne.schultz@gen-ethisches-netzwerk.de, Brunnenstr. 4, 10119 Berlin, Tel.: 030-685 70 73, Mobile: 0160/96715547

Daniel Bendix, glokal e.V. and Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies, University of Kassel, bendix@glokal.org, Choriner Str. 6 , 10119 Berlin; d.bendix@uni-kassel.de, Nora-Platiel-Str. 1, 34109 Kassel, Mobile: 0177/3240993

Claudia Jenkes, BUKO Pharma Campaign, August-Bebel-Str. 62, 33602 Bielefeld, Tel. 0521-60550, Mobile: 0163-9627573