WikiLeaks defends decision to publish critical facilities list
pharmafile | December 7, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â WikiLeaks, pharma manufacturing, securityÂ
Pharmaceutical facilities have featured prominently in in the latest batch of secret US embassy cables made public by WikiLeaks.
The whistle-blowing organisation is releasing more than 250,000 cables and among them are a long list of foreign plants considered critical to US national security.
Despite condemnation of the move by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, WikiLeaks insists the leak was in the public interest and does not raise any security issues.
The February 2009 cable – available at the time of publication here – details chemical, pharmaceutical and other industrial facilities that in 2008 were deemed “critical infrastructure”, in other words plants which if destroyed would cause material damage to US “security, national economic security, national public health or safety”.
Pharmaceutical factories in the list are located in Europe, Latin America, Canada and Australia and produce items such as smallpox, polio and rabies vaccines, anti-snake venom, insulin and treatments for influenza such as GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza (zanamivir) and Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir).
The list also includes a number of chemical suppliers, such as BASF’s enormous complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which is described as “the world’s largest integrated chemical complex”, as well as mines and communication hubs.
Drugmakers contacted by InPharm.com were tight-lipped about the leak, although one commentator did suggest that it might be advisable to double-check the security procedures at the named facilities to ensure they are robust.
UK and US politicians – who have generally been on the receiving end of the embarrassment caused by WikiLeaks’ diplomatic exposés – were more vocal on the leaked cables.
Former UK Minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who is chair of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, said in an interview with The Times newspaper that WikiLeaks’ decision to publish the list was “further evidence that they have been generally irresponsible, bordering on criminal”.
Philip Crowley, US Assistant Secretary of State, said the leak was “placing the interests of many countries and regions at risk.
WikiLeaks itself has defended its decision to publish the cables, arguing that they show US diplomats were going beyond their usual duties to play an intelligence-gathering role. It also denied that the cables could be used as a ‘hit list’ for terrorist organisations as it did not provide precise details of the locations of the facilities or their security measures.
The pharmaceutical companies with facilities listed in the cables include: Mayne Pharma, Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline, Bavarian Nordic, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Genzyme, IDT Biologika, CSL Behring, Novartis, Recip, Roche and Berna Biotech.
Phil Taylor
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