BitVyper
02-11-2014, 03:49 PM
So here's something that's been going on for years that I had no idea about: Indian law prevents shady patent extensions (called "evergreening") and makes allowances for copycat medicine (re: What most of the world uses anyway) that cost drastically less so that their citizens can actually afford medicine. This infringes on the ability of pharmaceutical companies to hold the entire world hostage, so they lobby against it in the US (which in turn starts shit on a global political scale) and sue Indian companies, and generally put an inhuman amount of pressure on the Indian government to sell out their citizens. India has, at least as of April last year (the most recent article on the legal proceedings I can find) consistently not caved to this pressure, which has earned them trade blacklistings and all kinds of other trouble with the Obama administration. Essentially, the western pharmaceutical company side of the argument is that being unable to extort Indian citizens is depriving them of profit they depend on.
So here are some articles on the matter in no particular order. I'd appreciate links to more information on the situation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/india-us-drugs-trade_n_3196458.html
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=7077&cat=press-release
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/business/global/top-court-in-india-rejects-novartis-drug-patent.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/american-lobbyists-are-fighting-to-halt-the-availability-of-affordable-medicine-to-the-3rd-world
I think what the whole thing highlights most for me, is just how cheap pharmaceuticals could be. Indian companies are selling life saving drugs for something like 97% cheaper. Like that's a fucking lot of money. I can understand some markup because of research, but come on.
So here are some articles on the matter in no particular order. I'd appreciate links to more information on the situation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/india-us-drugs-trade_n_3196458.html
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=7077&cat=press-release
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/business/global/top-court-in-india-rejects-novartis-drug-patent.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/american-lobbyists-are-fighting-to-halt-the-availability-of-affordable-medicine-to-the-3rd-world
I think what the whole thing highlights most for me, is just how cheap pharmaceuticals could be. Indian companies are selling life saving drugs for something like 97% cheaper. Like that's a fucking lot of money. I can understand some markup because of research, but come on.