On the heels of KBar's Findings: "A Wall Street Trader Draws Some Subprime Lessons: Michael Lewis" I bring you Brazil, Thailand Override Big Pharma Patents from Science magazine, about the use of compulsory licenses in third world countries. Again, I'm exploring similar themes from different sources. The Wall Street Trader story had the author stating that he won't be helping the poor again, the Brazil and Thailand piece is about these countries exercising WTO rights for noncommercial uses of patented drugs. Example, Brazil could save about US$30M in '07 by using a generic drug to treat 65,000 of people in need.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. Especially when Brazil, Thailand and others aren't going to be manufacturing the generic form of a drug to sell elsewhere.
Or so they tell me.
The response by big pharma? Both the US government and several pharma companies are threatening to either withhold drugs, foreign investment or invoke tariffs.
What was it I wrote a few days ago about predator and prey?
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