Brazzil

I in bondi wish to sign my support to the Brazil aim for affordable medication

Medicine, healthcare, education, and employment needs to be open and accessible to all if we are to survive as a human race

If not, where is the morailty proffered by rich countries, such as my australia

Christpher

Congratulations for your aticle because you clearly explained the views of the 2 sides....and that is unusual....in most newspapers, because usually the reporters of each country defend their own rights in an non objective way.
Switzerland, as you know, has also large international drugs companies.
The curious things here is that the drugs developped in our country are sold locally at much much higher prices, than the exported drugs produced here !!!!!!!
The drugs companies find this totally normal....saying the R&D costs must be paid by the Swiss people, as thios generate jobs and taxes for authorities....and if they are not allowed tu surcharge....they will move their R&D centers outside Switzerland...even though they already have many centers outside !!!!
As curious as it seems...so it is !!!!!

May be, after all, this is not stupid and it could be the basis of negotiations or ideas for emerging countries like yours !!!!

I think Brazil must do more on reasearch and less on counterfeiting products. Thier seriousness on combating aids is to be lauded. However, in the long term, if people feel they cant trust Brazilian authorities to protect their patents, it may be that the short term feel good effects could be negated in the long term. This is a touch road to walk brazil...unless you come up with our ways of invention and implementation.

I think that too but the big corporations are taking huge profits while thousands of people are suffering and dying.

I understand that when a company invests in R&D it needs to have some compensation back but they do exaggerate and in the end they are profit directly from human suffering.

Besides, sometimes, they visit our forest and literally steal our know-how, take the natural chemical composition to a lab modify slightly the formula and apply for a patent. Then they get approval for marketing the product at cost beyond of most of the poor can afford. This also happens in the USA and I heard people there complaining about the high cost of medicine and the inaccessibility of the medications. This is not a phenomenon only constrained to counties in development.

I am glad Brazil has the courage to challenge this situation. I do hope that we could start investing more that usual (we already have many institutes and universities already researching but they need more money) in R&D of our own so we do not need anything of that matter from foreign companies.

Let’s build a better Brazil by learning from our mistakes and problems instead copying the political ineptness of some industrialized countries.

I´m sorry, but what do you mean by “sometimes, they visit our forest and literally steal our know-how”?

Are you saying that they steal the work of Brazilian scientists working in the forest, or they steal plants found in the forest? Or, are they stealing traditional medicines from indigenous groups?

I confess, I used the wrong term.

Re-phrasing

“sometimes, they visit our forest and literally steal our flora"

Thank you pointing that out.

It is surprising for me to see with how much self-evidence and self-rightousness some people deleloping countries expect other people in devloped countries to pay so they can get cheaper medicine. Just some remarks: My country, Germany used to have one of the strongest, in fact the worlds leading, drugs industry until the late seventies. Since then, it has all but vanished. There is not a singular cause. But one of the major causes has been underinvestment in R&D, much of, it in our case, driven by a very unfavourable political and societal climate (Green Party and other social movements....). Copying drugs is very easy. Creating an economic, social, intellectual, educational and political environment that allows for innovation, is very difficult, even in industrialised countries, and easily destroyed. I think there is a lot for moral gorund to argue that on some drugs there should be a price differential where the Belgian sufferer pays more for his drug than is needed so that the Brazialian sufferer can get it cheaper. But there is little room to try to claim moral high ground from developing countries that just don't get their act together.

Lothar Eckstein

Lothar,

However, you are not discussing the human part of the situation or the suffering of the people who cannot afford paying for high priced medications. Please, forget profitability when the subject is human suffering. What did happen to the humanity aspect of the scientific endeavor? What science is good for; for making few much richer than many?

As I said, I believe that companies should get profit from selling their drugs but they are taking too much profit on human misery and that, my dear German friend, is immoral.

I used to work in a biotech company for many years in the USA, by the way.

Sergio

Gentlemen,

Some time in 1995 I got in to business with Brazilian partner in fishing adventure. I invested in to the 21m vessel and I purchased in USA and shipped in to Brazil the six passengers airplane. There is also the financial award available. Since I am now 67 and this equipment is for me, today worthless and giving me only the responsibility, which I don’t want to have any more, I decided to offer it to the public or any organization as donation. My reward would be only, that this will help to somebody who needed it most.

Please if you interested give me the world.



Sincerely



George Hendrych

412-854-3136 phone

-0863 fax

-877-o439 mob.

P.O. Box 75 Bethel Park, Pa. 15102