Corporate capture of Public Health

Abstract

Corporate capture is the deliberately planned process whereby political decisions respond to a particular interest of a private nature, in detriment to the public interest. The result is an unjust regulation or the absence of regulation where this is necessary for the protection of the common good. When policies affect commercial determinants of health, such as alcohol, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods, this is known as corporate capture of public health. Capture-related actions are targeted at civil society, experts, public-health officials, and politicians, and can assume different forms, ranging from material (revolving doors) to intellectual (distortion of science), social (control of information) and/or cultural (by reason of the group identity, status and relationship of the regulator with the representatives of private corporations). The capture strategies are aimed at: 1) biasing scientific results; 2) creating consumers from an early age; 3) promoting a good image of corporations; 4) questioning the legitimacy and appropriateness of governmental regulation; 5) controlling professional education; and 6) lobbying on governments and international bodies. To illustrate this phenomenon, we analyse a paradigmatic case of corporate capture of public health, namely, Spanish nutritional policies since the approval in 2005 of the «Strategy for Nutrition, Physical Activity and Prevention of Obesity (NAOS) ». In Spain, a sector of the scientific community and those in charge of nutritional policies have not only succumbed to the interests of private corporations, but have also adopted the latter’s line of reasoning as their own, thereby becoming a mouthpiece for corporate interests.