Just a few points to expose the myth of US pharmaceuticals having to jack up the prices of medicines for all of us because of research costs, for instance.
Many of the anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS today stem from the government-funded cancer drug research of the 1980s. The rights to government-created innovations were sold to pharmaceutical companies at low prices guaranteeing companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb huge returns on investment. Since your tax money is paying for some of the pharmaceutical research, should you not benefit from it by being able to buy medicines cheaper?
Some of the plants patented for their medicinal purposes do not even belong to the rich countries where most of the big pharmaceutical companies are based; they come from the developing world, where they have been used for centuries, but patented without their knowledge. Much of the knowledge of the use of plants for medical purposes resides with indigenous peoples and local communities. Scientists and companies from developed countries have been charged with biopiracy when they appropriate the plants or their compounds from the forests as well as the traditional knowledge of the community healers, since patents are often applied for the materials and the knowledge.
The big pharmaceutical companies have attempted to block poorer countries attempts to deal with various health crises. A vivid case is that of South Africa and cheaper generic drugs. The huge pharmaceutical association threatened South Africa with trade sanctions for trying to develop cheaper, generic drugs to combat AIDS. They claimed that World Trade Organization (WTO) rules regarding patents and intellectual property were being violated.
When CIPLA, one of Indias leading generics companies, offered a cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS at $350 a year, compared to $10,000 from the multinational companies, this sent a shockwave in two ways. Poor countries realized they might have more affordable means to deal with a massive health crisis that afflicts them the most; and the large multinationals saw their monopoly prices severely threatened, and, exposed.
Poorest countries have no pharmaceutical industries and depend on countries with generic drugs industry, especially India. Now that India has agreed to follow the TRIPs agreement, exporting generic treatments has become illegal.
Ironically, Indias new patent laws now enable pharmaceutical companies to test drugs on Indias poor by using Indias cheaper, but highly skilled workforce to conduct drugs trials there, rather than in industrialized countries, thus saving significantly on the costs.
Big pharma generally defends high prices for new drugs to cover costs for researching and developing new drugs. But in fact, most new drugs launched are just slight variations of existing medicines, such as eight drugs in development at the moment for erectile dysfuction.
In Africa, the documentary "Dying for Drugs" showed how one of the worlds biggest drug companies experimented on children without their parents knowledge or consent.
And so goes the story ...
http://www.globalissues.org/health/overview/#Millionsdieeachyearneedlessly
Many of the anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS today stem from the government-funded cancer drug research of the 1980s. The rights to government-created innovations were sold to pharmaceutical companies at low prices guaranteeing companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb huge returns on investment. Since your tax money is paying for some of the pharmaceutical research, should you not benefit from it by being able to buy medicines cheaper?
Some of the plants patented for their medicinal purposes do not even belong to the rich countries where most of the big pharmaceutical companies are based; they come from the developing world, where they have been used for centuries, but patented without their knowledge. Much of the knowledge of the use of plants for medical purposes resides with indigenous peoples and local communities. Scientists and companies from developed countries have been charged with biopiracy when they appropriate the plants or their compounds from the forests as well as the traditional knowledge of the community healers, since patents are often applied for the materials and the knowledge.
The big pharmaceutical companies have attempted to block poorer countries attempts to deal with various health crises. A vivid case is that of South Africa and cheaper generic drugs. The huge pharmaceutical association threatened South Africa with trade sanctions for trying to develop cheaper, generic drugs to combat AIDS. They claimed that World Trade Organization (WTO) rules regarding patents and intellectual property were being violated.
When CIPLA, one of Indias leading generics companies, offered a cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS at $350 a year, compared to $10,000 from the multinational companies, this sent a shockwave in two ways. Poor countries realized they might have more affordable means to deal with a massive health crisis that afflicts them the most; and the large multinationals saw their monopoly prices severely threatened, and, exposed.
Poorest countries have no pharmaceutical industries and depend on countries with generic drugs industry, especially India. Now that India has agreed to follow the TRIPs agreement, exporting generic treatments has become illegal.
Ironically, Indias new patent laws now enable pharmaceutical companies to test drugs on Indias poor by using Indias cheaper, but highly skilled workforce to conduct drugs trials there, rather than in industrialized countries, thus saving significantly on the costs.
Big pharma generally defends high prices for new drugs to cover costs for researching and developing new drugs. But in fact, most new drugs launched are just slight variations of existing medicines, such as eight drugs in development at the moment for erectile dysfuction.
In Africa, the documentary "Dying for Drugs" showed how one of the worlds biggest drug companies experimented on children without their parents knowledge or consent.
And so goes the story ...
http://www.globalissues.org/health/overview/#Millionsdieeachyearneedlessly
