Monday, May 07, 2007

Buy your drugs here!


The deadly illness of HIV/AIDS is prevalent in many poor countries. From Africa, to India, to Thailand, the illness spreads. Drug Companies are doing their best to combat this with (surprise) drugs. They are doing a good job too. The drugs actually do what they are supposed to do and save the life of the person taking them.

Unfortunately, getting the drugs can be expensive for many countries. The cost of the drug itself is not the only problem. There is the added problem of importing them into the country. The cost of transporting, plus the cost of the import/export tax can be quite a hard on a country whose average person earns less than a few dollars a day.

Thailand has come up with a solution that is helpful for their country, but pisses off the western countries. They have decided to break copyright law on these drugs and sell them to their citizens cheaper. Western countries have criticised this move because they claim the money only lines the pockets of the politicians. They further claim that Thailand had the option of getting these drugs for free through Global Fund (a Switzerland based program), they chose not to, thus proving that they only want the money for themselves.

Now I'm not a biochemist, nor an economist. But if i were running a country, i could see good business cents in making a knock-off drug in my own country, selling it to my own people and keeping the profits WITHIN the country.

I mean, at the end of the day, this seems to be asking whose pockets do i want lined with money?....

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