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Brazil Voids Merck Patent On AIDS Drug

Posted by kdawson on from the developing-world-revolt dept.

JoeBackward writes "Merck has this useful anti-AIDS drug Elfavirenz, and Brazil has lots of poor people with AIDS. So, after trying really hard to get Merck to cooperate on pricing, the Brazilian government has decided to take a 'compulsory license' to the patent, and get the drug from a factory in India. This compulsory license is basically a way to take the patent by eminent domain." This move gives Brazil one more thing in common with Thailand, both of which have blocked YouTube. Thailand's compulsory licensing of Elfavirenz and Plavix has landed the country on the US's watch list for piracy.

4 of 765 comments (clear)

  1. Atlas Shrugged by N8F8 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Brazil, Thailand, Venezuela...you take away the incentive to to research for a profit and you take away the reason to do it at all. If those socialists really wanted to do it right they could at least have their own government subsidize the drug costs.

    --
    "God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
  2. Re:The easy way out. by larry+bagina · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If they didn't spend all day having buttsex with each other maybe they wouldn't be so poor. Or have AIDS.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  3. Re:humanity vs capitalism by bulliver · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Are you seriously saying Merck's right to price gouge in order to make its rich, fat, and wealthy shareholders even richer and fatter outweighs hundreds of thousands of sick people's right to health and life? You sir, have some fucked up ethics.

    Yeah, sure, Merck is well within their legal right to do this. Yeah, sure, R&D on drugs is expensive. Have you ever heard of a sliding scale? It's what ethical companies use to ensure they get paid while also ensuring that poor people get the product/service they need for a basic level of quality of life. A sliding scale is what Brazil asked for. Once again, greed wins the day. And toadies like you defend it.

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    Support the mob or mysteriously disappear.
  4. Re:humanity vs capitalism by The_Quinn · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Have you ever watched a person you care for waste away because they couldn't afford the medication they needed? Have you ever asked a person who couldn't afford the medication they needed why they didn't have insurance? Or why they didn't save enough money for an emergency? Or why they live in a country that squashes the rights of its citizens and keeps people poor and in squalor, for fear of the governments might boot squashing them too?

    Have you ever wondered why people don't delve into what, for example, has made a country like the USA incredibly wealthy over the short span of a couple centuries, with such a high standard of living?

    Have you ever wondered why other countries do not emulate the principles of the U.S, to improve the lot of their own countries?

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    Mine is Good