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Indonesia Stops Sharing Avian Virus Samples

Posted by kdawson on from the intellectual-property-flu dept.

dankrabach writes "Indonesia has apparently decided to play the IP game, with the world's health at stake. The country, one of the hardest-hit by avian flu, has stopped submitting virus samples to the World Health Organization, and is negotiating to sell them to an American drug company that makes the vaccine. They feel slighted when they give away such samples, but then cannot afford the patented vaccines. Logical to me, given the rules of the game; however, can't we come up with some GPL'ish license to free any product based on this data?"

7 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Avian Flu by celardore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I live near where a recent 'outbreak' of Avian Flu has occurred in England. Forgive me for perhaps not seeing the bigger picture, but what's the big deal? regular flu kills more people every winter in the UK alone than Avian Flu has the world over - ever. AFAIK anyway.

  2. Alternate first sentence by arkham6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Instead of "Indonesia has apparently decided to play the IP game, with the world's health at stake.", you could easily say "American Drug company decided to play the IP game, with Indonesia's health at stake."

    I'd be pissed too if i was indonesia.

    1. Re:Alternate first sentence by Rufty · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indonesia does the grunt-work of collecting the samples, for free. The drug companies, Baxter et al., charge for the "IP" of the drugs made based from these samples. Not just the drugs, the IP that Indonesia helped gather. At the very least this warrents some share of the IP, say, gratis licences to manufacture the drugs so researched.

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
  3. A Geek Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Forbid any American drug company from buying the samples. Problem solved."

    I guess this is why geeks aren't called to solve world problems. It isn't an "American" problem, but an economic one. As the other poster pointed out vaccines cost money to develop, and test. A GPL license isn't going to solve that problem. A socialist solution were the entire planet pays for the process might. But then "the world" isn't noted for working together for the common good either.

  4. Waitaminute. by Garridan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They feel slighted when they give away such samples, but then cannot afford the patented vaccines. How is this Indonesia being evil? They've gotten tired of getting fucked in the face by greedy american pharm companies. It's like, "Hey! Give us some virus, and we'll make a cure!". "Here's the cure! Oh... you can't afford it? Well, sorry all your people are dying. BTW, do you have any samples of the new strains? We'd really like to make a new cure."

    I'd get pretty tired of that, too. This isn't "playing the IP game, with the world's health at stake". This is fighting back against the IP trolls, who are holding the world's health hostage.
  5. No money? No reason. by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A vaccine is hard to make.
    A vaccine is expensive to make.

    If there's no profit, there's no incentive.
    If there's no funding, there's no resources.

    Tragic, but you don't want to do the work - no matter how helpful - if it doesn't put food on your table and a movie on your TV.
    Sure you can volunteer a bit, but only if it doesn't harm your personal bottom line.

    What are YOU doing to prepare the Avian Flu vaccine? Thought so.
    In the long-shot chance you _are_ working on an Avian Flu vaccine, are you doing it for free? Thought so.

    Yes, it makes sense for drug companies to charge a fortune for the Avian Flu vaccine - it will cost them a fortune to create it.
    Yes, it makes sense for Indonesia to make arrangements to assure they get the vaccine (either thru barter or billing).
    Yes, it sounds perverse to sell the disease to buy the cure.
    Welcome to the real world.
    You don't cure a pandemic for free.

    You got a better idea?

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
  6. Re:A Solution by MrNaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think this is quite reasonable of them. If they were giving the samples for free, and then told "you have to pay a price for the vaccine", a price they were not able to afford, then it is only fair for them to say that "we contributed the sample, which lead to the vaccine, therefore we deserve a) a share of the profits from the vaccine or b) rights to the vaccine for a reduced cost".

    The easiest way to achieve this is to charge for the samples, effectively providing funding for the purchase of the vaccine. Seems quite reasonable to me.

    --
    I hate printers.