Posts Tagged ‘Pharmaceutical intellectual property’

Genetic drugs vs. pharmaceutical clout is a huge issue. This is especially true for third world countries. Anyone who reads the posts knows that I am not a fan of pharmaceuticals. there isn’t a good back up plan for countries such as India, Thailand, Brazil.

I am a realist that knows medications have a place in certain circumstances. In some areas of the world sanitation is lacking, pollution, poverty, droughts, and customs dictate that lifesaving intervention is needed. Medical care is no where near the scale of what we have in U.S. and antibiotics along with AIDS/ HIV medications are needed.

Pharmaceutical Clout

Pharmaceutical clout is showing up in the wrong places. The U.S. government’s decision to place India, Thailand, Brazil, and other counties on its annual trade “Watch Lists” is a tactic that threatens access to affordable generic drugs patients in the developing world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

The “Watch Lists,” in the annual Special 301 Report released today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), take action against countries the U.S. considers to be inadequately protecting intellectual property, even though they are complying with international agreements.

Thailand, Brazil and India-the world’s principal producer of quality genetic medicines were singled out for insufficient enforcement of intellectual property. The countries challenged are acting within their legal rights.

The Purprose of Pharmaceuticals $

The purpose of pharmaceuticals is what is at the heart of this debate. It is the implied purpose of providing and having available tools to treat major health threats. Offering patients the prospects of rehabilitating their health with the subsequence effect of improving their life is the implied purpose.

Mainstream medicine is the bed fellow of the pharmaceutical industry. There supposed purpose is to help humanity first and second to cause no harm. Where have all the lethal effects of pharmaceuticals come from?

Rushing to market, pandering for profit, and getting intellectual rights to more things than are defendable, everything but the planet’s well being seems to matter.

At this time global funding shortfalls for health programs, the USTR is working counter to the efforts of U.S. global programs such as its HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, which purchases 70-90 percent of its drugs from generic suppliers.

Questioning Pharmaceutical Practices

There are laws in place that protect pharmaceutical companies, which allow them to act as a virtual monopoly. We are held hostage to price gouging, and poor performing drugs that endanger lives. Prescription drug costs have skyrocketed at a rate that exceeds inflation.

When millions of people lives depend on the availability of the few drugs that will enable them to survive, it is a blatant disregard for life. Pharmaceutical companies have no place in the business of people care, while putting profits first.