Abstract:
► Forty years after the World Health Assembly adopted
the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk
Substitutes, inappropriate marketing of breast-milk
substitutes persists and puts infants and young chil-
dren at risk of malnutrition, illness and death.
► The formula industry is large and powerful and has
used various ‘medical marketing’ strategies to influ-
ence scientists and health professionals as to the
purported benefit of breast-milk substitutes.
► The examples provided in this commentary show
how a manufacturer is using a leading scientific
journal to market breast-milk substitutes through
paid advertisements and advertisement features.
► By receiving funding from breast-milk substitute
manufacturers, journals create a conflict of interest,
whereby the publisher and readers of the journal may
favour corporations consciously or unconsciously in
ways that undermine scientific integrity, editorial in-
dependence and clinical judgement.
► Conflicts of interest have previously been identified
in infant and young child nutrition science and in
journal advertising policies and have been criticised
by public health experts, yet the practice continues.
► All scientific journals and publishers should stop ac-
cepting funding from manufacturers and distributors
of breast-milk substitutes, in accordance with global
public health guidance. Public health must come be-
fore profit.
