(NaturalNews) The health minister of Thailand, Mongkol na Songkhla, has announced that the country will override international drug patents if pharmaceutical companies do not significantly lower their prices to make medications affordable to the country's poor. Specifically, he cited drugs for cancer and heart disease.
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bottom lineWhat you need to know - Conventional View
• Mongkol said that most people in
Thailand cannot afford patented drugs, and that the
government cannot afford to subsidize them. This is why the government recently overrode
patents on two HIV/AIDS drugs and one for
heart disease, allowing generic production.
• This marked the first time that a Third World nation had overridden a patent on a heart
medicine.
• Mongkol said that drug
companies should re-negotiate their
prices now, learning from the experience of
Merck. The U.S.-based company had its patent for the HIV/AIDS
drug Efavirenz overridden in November, and as a result Merck was recently forced to cut its prices by almost 50 percent.
• Because the government of Thailand is appointed by the military, Mongkol said he has nothing to lose by alienating the
pharmaceutical companies. He said that he is not concerned about destroying the companies'
profits, because they spend much more on marketing than on research and development.
• Quote: "We have to provide
health services to 49 million people and with limited resources. Reaching the neglected poor is our main concern." - Mongkol na Songkhla
What you need to know - Alternative View
Statements and opinions by Mike Adams, author of Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them• Thailand's stance on
drug patents is courageous and necessary, given the profiteering and monopolistic practices of drug companies who seek to extract obscene drug profits from some of the poorest people in the world.
• Drug companies are in business to make money, not to serve humanity. Profits win out over compassion every time.
• Medicine should not be patentable. Intellectual property is out of control in the modern world, with corporations owning patents on seeds, animals and even human gene sequences. These things should belong to the people, not greedy corporations.
Bottom line
• Thailand has threatened to override drug patents on heart and cancer medicine, in favor of generics, if pharmaceutical companies do not slash their prices.
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