News : 01 June 2007

RCP response to Reed Elsevier pulling out of arms trade exhibition

Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, said today that he was delighted to hear that the publishing company Reed Elsevier had decided to cease organising arms exhibitions:

"This will safeguard the reputation of the Reed Elsevier publication The Lancet and no longer undermine its role in improving health and healthcare worldwide. I hope that the weight of opinion on this issue in the medical and scientific community had a bearing on this decision, as many senior medical and scientific figures had expressed their concern publicly, both in The Lancet itself and elsewhere."

A letter from RCP President Professor Gilmore and Dr Michael Pelly, the RCP International Adviser for Global Health Issues was published in The Lancet on 23 March 2007, expressing the College's concerns about the links between the journal and the parent company's involvement in the arms trade.

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