NewsLocale - IMA Endorses Pepsi Products as Health Organizations Cry Foul

FRIDAY, May 9, (News Locale) - The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is in a soup after it was revealed that the medical body has agreed to endorse two commercial products. PepsiCo's Tropicana juice and Quaker Oats have been given a stamp of approval by the IMA making it the first instance of any Pepsi product being endorsed by a country's premier medical organization.

IMA Secretary General SN Mishra confirmed that the organization has indeed struck a three year deal with Pepsi that will see both the products get IMA's approval seal in return for the company paying Rs 50 lakh. Mishra pointed out the advantage of such deal stating that the cost of any awareness programs held by IMA for oat meal or health juices will borne by Pepsi.

However the IMA has come under strong criticism from both the Union Health Ministry as well as other health organizations. Sunita Narain, who is the director of the Centre for Science and Environment, slammed the endorsement and questioned the organization's ethical approach.

Union health minister A Ramadoss too expressed his displeasure over the deal saying that there are many serious health problems faced by the country and the IMA should concentrate on helping the ministry fight against diseases such as TB and malaria instead of signing endorsement deals.

This is not the first time that the IMA has given its seal of approval to commercial products. IMA's biggest endorsement deal to date was with Eureka Forbes for which the organization received Rs 3 crores. The IMA has also signed deals with other products such as Dettol soap and Pampers diapers.

1. 09-05-2008 16:28

The apex body of doctors instead of endorsing products in return of lakhs of rupees should concentrate on the other major issues related to the health of the common people in India, or the AAM AADMI. There are so many cases of treatment going wary due to the blessing of the learned doctors negligence that sometimes lead to the death of patients even and instead of taking up such cases and bringing such docs to book, they are busy endorsing products for companies whose other class of products had already been marked dangerous and hazardous for the indian population, due regards to independent researches. It is of much wonder who runs this IMA body. If they are been run on their own, so how did they managed to run for so long and what was their fund sources and if they are being run by the government then how do they dare to take such a step without consulting their superiors. And if they did so, then their superiors perhaps from the Ministry of health etc. are equally responsible for such callous steps to jeopardise the faith of the Indian people to its apex organizations.

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