Gulliver

Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, was founded in 1849. It has been prosecuted for illegal marketing and misleading advertising for a number of drugs like arthritis drug Bextra (valdecoxib), Centrum multivitamins, bladder drug Detrol (tolterodine), anti-epilepsy drug Neurotonin (gabapentin), statin medication Lipitor (atorvastatin) and kidney transplant drug Rapamune (sirolimus). It paid the U.S. government $2.3 billion in 2009 after pleading guilty to the illegal marketing of Bextra. The company was also sued in Nigeria for conducting drug trials with trovafloxacin, an experimental antibiotic, during a meningitis epidemic in Nigeria in 1996 without getting permission from their parents, dozens of whom died subsequently.

Quirónsalud is the Spanish subsidiary of the multinational health group Fresenius. With its headquarters in Madrid, the company’s clinics are largely concentrated in Spain but are also present in Peru, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Quirónsalud’s workers have organized countless strikes, campaigns, and assemblies over a number of issues, ranging from low wages to a lack of protection during the Covid-19 pandemic to anti-union activities. Early 2022, two unionized workers at Quirónsalud’s facilities in Colombia received death threats after organizing negotiations between the union and the company. A global union-led campaign called on the company to denounce the threats, which it has refused to do up until this point.