Melting the Iron Curtain: opportunities for public health collaboration through international joint ventures.

The opportunities for international public health collaboration through joint business ventures between the USSR and Western nations, an arrangement that would benefit the public, industry, and the medical community, are discussed. Evidence indicates that the state of health of the Soviet population is declining rapidly; the Soviet minister has called for a major restructuring of the health care system, one that places greater emphasis on prevention. Although the USSR has begun to look to the West for economic and political guidance, it is suggested that Soviets would be ill-advised to discard the goal of universal access to health care and adopt, for example, the US model (the US itself is currently debating the appropriate function of government in health care). The USSR, however, could benefit from some of the private-public collaborations that already take place in the West. In the USSR, this collaboration could take the form of joint ventures. Such joint ventures in public health already exist in the USSR. For example, the multinational Tambrands Inc. Has established an international joint venture in the Ukraine to manufacture tampons. Its Soviet counterpart, Femtech, provides labor, supplies, facilities, and marketing, while Tambrands provides its trademark, plant design, equipment, training, and management. Between 1990 and 1991, Tambrands increased its market share of tampons from 3% to 22%. A whole range of public health needs that could be met through joint ventures, such as the provision of badly needed contraceptives, is envisioned. It is concluded that such practices would not only be good business, but also good for the health of the Soviet people.