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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?"

14 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Pirates! by drewzhrodague · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like we're going to have to wait for the pirates to bring a few hundred million copies over through the airports, wide-open borders, by sea, or other means. Couldn't they have put some DRM into this?

    Seriously can't wait to get my copies!

    --
    Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
    1. Re:Pirates! by crayz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just wait until the pharm companies find out you illegaly transferred H5N1 IP to your system, and then made *billions* of copies of it. Your doctor will get a strongly-worded takedown notice, that's for sure

    2. Re:Pirates! by Darth_brooks · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh, come on. You're just getting lawsuit happy. Those viruses were for *personal use*, he didn't know that he was also allowing others access to copyrighted materials. It must have been an accidental misconfiguration.

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  2. 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.

    1. Re:Avian Flu by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      We're waiting for the eventual mutation that will allow Avian Flu to spread through the air from person to person. So far it can't do that. So far, to get Avian Flu a person needs to eat or have contact with infected birds. Once it goes airborne, though, you will see Avian Flu killing a lot more people than the regular flu does. We're trying to figure out an effective therapeutic regimen before that happens.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    2. Re:Avian Flu by Sneftel · · Score: 4, Funny

      The penguin lobby is pretty powerful here.

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      The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
  3. 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.

      --
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  4. When viruses are outlawed... by mblase · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...only outlaws will have viruses.

    Hey, I actually like the sound of that.

  5. 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.

  6. Compare and contrast by jb.hl.com · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the summary:

    They feel slighted when they give away such samples, but then cannot afford the patented vaccines.

    And the Shah of Iran in 1973, just before the oil crisis:

    "Of course [the world price of oil] is going to rise," the Shah told the New York Times in 1973. "Certainly! And how...; You [Western nations] increased the price of wheat you sell us by 300%, and the same for sugar and cement...; You buy our crude oil and sell it back to us, redefined as petrochemicals, at a hundred times the price you've paid to us...; It's only fair that, from now on, you should pay more for oil. Let's say ten times more."

    No real point. Just found the similarities interesting.

    --
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  7. 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.
  8. 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?

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  9. 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.

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