CORPORATE HEALTH DIPLOMACY
BY CAITLIN R. MOONEY
QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY
MARCH 30, 2012
ABSTRACT
This study proposes a new type of diplomacy to better describe the role of pharmaceutical
companies in global health and their individual charitable efforts conducted to meet the dual
goals of improving global health and obtaining business objectives. This study is significant
because it offers a conceptualization of a new type of diplomacy that advances the field through
the use of international pubic relations theory, thus better describing the state of diplomacy and
offering academics new avenues of scholarly exploration. In addition, practitioners can utilize
the concept to create mutually beneficial relationships with strategic publics, thereby improving
global public health. This new type of diplomacy is called corporate health diplomacy (CHD)
and is more complex than simply pharmaceutical companies’ participation in health diplomacy
and is more elaborate than isolated acts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) because they
focus on long-term solutions for social health problems. Different types of CHD efforts include
the creation of educational programs for patients, contribution to research and development of
new drugs, medical training, and sharing intellectual property to fight diseases such as
HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB). This study conducted a qualitative content analysis
of the annual and corporate responsibility reports published on the web sites of ten
pharmaceutical companies to review the CSR and CHD efforts conducted by each company. It
also examined how the global, glocal and cultural approaches to international public relations
apply to CHD to uncover a potential area for future public relations research and establish best
practices.
