UKHPRC reiterates: medical royal colleges must end their associations with Teva (13/10/2026)
Upholding medical ethics means ensuring that our medical representative bodies act on the values they profess.
Members of the medical royal colleges at UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) have written to their respective colleges, calling on them to end commercial and promotional relationships with Teva and exclude future sponsorship, exhibition and branded educational arrangements.
Following the decisions by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) to end Teva sponsorship arrangements and end all commercial ties, medical royal colleges now have a clear precedent for action.
Our concerns centre on Teva’s record of corporate bribery, price-fixing, patent-system abuse, competitor disparagement and environmental violations, alongside its reported support for the Israeli military during its campaign of annihilation on the people of Gaza and its ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank, a record that RCN and RCPharm have found incompatible with their professional values - and that medical royal colleges must now address.
Sponsorship, exhibition arrangements and branded educational content lend professional credibility to a company whose conduct demands ethical and legal scrutiny, whether or not money currently changes hands.
We have called on the colleges’ leadership to take prompt, substantive action and ensure their institutional relationships reflect the ethical standards expected of the profession. UKHPRC will recognise meaningful progress and judge responses by the action they produce. Where those responses fall short, we will escalate our campaign.
Our objective is a lasting end to these relationships, supported by transparent policies that prevent their return.
UKHPRC Calls on Healthcare Royal Colleges to Sever Ties with Teva (08/10/2026)
Written by members of royal colleges who contributed to this co-led campaign
As members and fellows of the royal colleges, concerned healthcare workers and members of the public, we are delighted by the decisions of the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Pharmacy to cancel Teva sponsorships of upcoming events, ending their commercial relationships with Teva UK as of 23 September 2026 and 2 October 2026 respectively. Both decisions came soon after we raised our concerns with the colleges.
We hope this reflects the ethical concerns that the public expects from healthcare professionals, and welcome a similar level of ethical seriousness from the Royal Medical Colleges. It should be emphasised that Teva Pharmaceuticals is the only major pharmaceutical company to have provided direct material support to the Israeli military, and hope the Royal Medical Colleges account for this reality in their future relationships.
These developments strike at the professional credibility that makes healthcare sponsorship valuable to Teva. Other colleges must now explain why a company rejected by their peers remains an acceptable partner for them. The implications reach into NHS boardrooms and pharmacy purchasing departments: Teva’s place in British healthcare must also be examined when contracts are awarded and renewed, not merely where conference logos are displayed and exhibition stands win awards.
We intend to turn these victories into sustained pressure on the commercial relationships that have shielded the company’s conduct from proper ethical and legal scrutiny.
We intend to turn these victories into sustained pressure on the commercial relationships that have shielded the company’s ethical and legal record from proper scrutiny.
These developments follow campaigning by UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC), Nurses 4 Palestine (N4P), Global Health BDS for Palestine (GHBDSforPalestine), and allied organisations, supported by healthcare workers demanding that healthcare royal colleges uphold the ethical principles they claim to represent.
We thank everyone who signed, shared and helped bring this issue into public view.
These developments place the continuing, shameful commercial relationships between Teva UK and the healthcare royal colleges under sharper scrutiny. Sponsorship and exhibition arrangements give the company access to healthcare professionals, visibility at respected events and credibility through educational sponsorship and association with institutions entrusted to uphold professional standards, helping whitewash its record.
Our colleges exist to promote excellence in clinical practice and patient care, advance education and research, and shape healthcare policy. Accepting commercial support must be consistent with those responsibilities. Maintaining a commercial relationship with Teva raises serious ethical and legal concerns.
Central to these concerns is Teva’s material support for the Israeli military, which faces credible accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
These concerns also include what UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has condemned as Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestine”, “ethnic cleansing” and “evidence of war crimes”, alongside the destruction of healthcare. Together, these demand scrutiny of the colleges’ due diligence, conflicts of interest and commercial transparency.
This is compounded by Teva’s notorious record of corporate bribery, price-fixing, patent-system abuse, competitor disparagement and environmental violations.
Pharmacy chains, wholesalers and NHS procurement bodies must explain how their due diligence addresses Teva’s record of legal sanctions, who authorised the continuation of these relationships, and whether their purchasing decisions comply with their own ethical and procurement policies.
UKHPRC invites the wider healthcare community to join us in demanding that all royal colleges sever commercial ties with Teva and prohibit future sponsorship, exhibition and other commercial arrangements with the company in their institutional policies. We will continue to scrutinise these relationships and hold the colleges publicly accountable for their decisions.
Joint Statement of Support for RCN Leadership on Ethical Commercial Partnerships (27/09/2026)
Written by Members of the Royal College of Nursing who contributed to this co-led campaign
Nurses 4 Palestine and the Nursing Arm of UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) welcome and commend the Royal College of Nursing’s decision to end its commercial partnership with Teva UK.
In its letter of 23 September 2026, the RCN confirmed that Teva UK will no longer sponsor the RCNi Nursing Leadership Summit. It acknowledged that further due diligence had identified operations subject to legal sanction and public scrutiny that were inconsistent with RCN and RCNi values. The RCN also committed to strengthening its commercial partnership policy.
This response demonstrates leadership. By listening to the concerns raised in our open letter and acting on them, the RCN has affirmed that its commercial relationships must reflect the values of the nursing profession. We thank RCN Council Chair Carmel O’Boyle and the College’s leadership for taking this step, and everyone who signed and supported our letter. We are heartened by this decision and we hope it marks the beginning of sustained work on ethical commercial governance. Our open letter also called for an independent investigation into how the sponsorship was approved and a binding policy developed with members. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the RCN on these outstanding matters: to help ensure its revised policy is transparent and robust and members are assured that such a lapse in governance could not reoccur.
Further to this, we would encourage RCN leadership to revisit the divestment report we have issued in collaboration with Corporate Watch in Jan 2026 which has raised numerous concerns around RCN investments and their risk of complicity in activities associated with the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. We hope that RCN leadership will agree this too is not in line with RCN values and thus, would apply the same due diligence to such investments as they have to sponsorship. Nurses have a duty to protect life, uphold dignity and speak out when healthcare is harmed. The RCN’s decision shows that those principles can guide institutional action. We look forward to building on it together.
Nurses 4 Palestine (N4P)
Nursing Arm of UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC)
Statement on RCGP Engagement and the Importance of Transparent Leadership (28/11/2025)
Since launch of petition in 23 May 2025, UKHPRC has made repeated formal requests to meet with the Royal College of General Practitioners to discuss the College’s response to the catastrophes unfolding in Gaza. These requests did not receive a response of any offer for a meeting.
On 2 October 2025, the RCGP Chair sent a letter indicating a willingness to meet. UKHPRC internally met and replied on 18 October, accepting this offer and requesting proposed dates. No response to this correspondence was received.
At the RCGP Annual General Meeting on 27 November 2025, the Chair stated that no response had been received from UKHPRC. This is not consistent with the documented correspondence.
As the College moves into a period of leadership transition, we hope this episode serves as a reminder of the importance of accurate communication, timely engagement with members, and transparent governance. These principles are essential to maintaining the confidence of the profession.
UKHPRC remains committed to constructive dialogue with the College and stands ready to meet with RCGP leadership at any time.
UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges - Primary Care Arm
UKHPRC Statement of Support for RCPCH Leadership on Gaza (06/2025)
UKHPRC Statement of Support for RCPCH Leadership on Gaza
The Paediatric Arm of the UK Healthcare Petition to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) for the Gaza Crisis, wish to publicly
acknowledge and commend the leadership shown by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)
and its President, Professor Steve Turner, in responding to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The College's public statements on 23 May and 27 May 2025 marked a necessary and significant shift in tone,
recognising the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic,” condemning the failure to provide humanitarian aid, and calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. These steps were widely welcomed across the paediatric community and reflect the ethical and humanitarian responsibilities that define our profession.
We particularly welcome the recent joint letter to the Foreign Secretary, dated 4 June 2025, co-signed by medical
Royal Colleges. The fact that RCPCH's name appeared first on this statement is deeply meaningful. It signals the
College’s willingness to lead, not just speak, on matters of international humanitarian concern, especially where
children’s lives, health, and dignity are at stake. In a moment where silence has too often been the path of least
resistance, this visible act of leadership matters.
We are also grateful for Professor Turner’s direct engagement with our group, including his willingness to meet and
discuss how the College might further strengthen its position and align with the demands articulated in our petitions to Royal Colleges, which now carry over 7000 signatures of healthcare professionals from across the country.
In our correspondence and upcoming meeting, we continue to call for action that addresses the root causes of
collective past inaction across healthcare domains, advocates for the protection of healthcare workers, facilities, and our colleagues on the ground in Gaza, and creates a framework that effectively engages the paediatric community in current and future conflict zones where children bear extreme suffering.
As regulated health professionals, we are bound by our duty to protect and safeguard children, wherever they may be. Our position is grounded not in politics, but in the ethical principles that define our profession: honesty, integrity, respect, equity, and fairness. These values compel us to speak out when children’s lives, wellbeing, and futures are at risk. Advocacy in the face of preventable suffering is not optional; it is our professional responsibility to stand up for the vulnerable.
We stand ready to work collaboratively with RCPCH to ensure the College continues to uphold the spirit of the
overwhelming vote at the March 2025 AGM in support of children’s rights in Gaza. The moral clarity and public
leadership demonstrated so far are essential first steps, and they must be sustained and expanded.
We extend our sincere thanks to Professor Turner and the College. Leadership in moments of crisis is not only
necessary, it is historic.
Kind regard
Paediatric Arm of UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges