ABSTRACT
On 10 March 2004, a group of shareholders of Abbott Laboratories made a proposal concerning global infectious diseases to their Board of Directors (Abbott 2004). Core Ratings, a nationally recognised statistical rating organisation in the US, had found that Abbott’s performance compared with its pharmaceutical industry peers: 1) ‘has not demonstrated flexibility on patents’; 2) ‘has no formal policy on developing country diseases’; and 3) ‘its policy on clinical trials does not commit to adherence with WHO guidelines’. The shareholders requested that the Board review the economic effects of the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria pandemics on the company’s business strategy, and its initiatives to date, and report to shareholders within six months following the 2004 meeting.
