E-drug: Helping developing countries access medicines
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear E-druggers,
The view here is that upholding patent rights is wise in a sense.
Nevertheless because people are dying at a reducible magnitude and
we want well-thought out sustainable interventions - interventions
which can yield results whether in the presence or absence of a
particular group of leaders - I wish to present an idea.
Rich countries, maybe through the global fund, could pay off research
and development costs to pioneer manufacturers, plus a reasonable
margin of profit. (Note that there can be a difference between
developing a new molecule, and working on it to get a usable drug
form).
After buying off the patent right every country should be either free to
make the medications at even cheaper rates or should buy from the
cheapest source.
All of us advocating for removal of patent barriers without a realistic
compensation mechanism, to put it mildly, are being unfair to
innovation. Besides this there are no free lunches.
It still has a weakness, but is a better option than demanding for
services before paying: Why not advocate for the arrangement
suggested above?
George Kibumba
Teaching Assistant, Clinical Pharmacy
Dept of Pharmacy, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
e-mail: kibumba@yahoo.com
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug