Pharmaceutical industry in China
Brazil's Dangerous Gamble
IPN Opinion article
US cotton subsidies are bad, but they are no reason for Brazil to undermine intellectual property rights.
Corruption fuels spread of fake drugs business
IPN Opinion article
A barrage of email spam highlights the dangers from bad drugs as everyone worries about swine flu but the plague of counterfeits is constant threat everywhere and particularly in poor countries. Taxes and corruption make business difficult or impossible for legitimate medicines but open the field to counterfeit dealers who can pay the bribes and make huge profits on their cheap imitations.
India: Urgent steps are needed to ensure quality medicines
IPN Opinion article
The WHO is trying to fight the huge international trade in counterfeits but faces opposition from India and others, driven by a strange coalition ranging from the far Left to business organisations: this author blows away some of the straw men these people have built up. Barun Mitra says robust trademark protection will give Indian companies a stake in quality and give Indian, and worldwide, patients the guarantees that they need.
There's no silver bullet for malaria
IPN Opinion article
Drug resistant malaria portends a health disaster, provoked by widespread substandard drugs. While cheaper drugs may help, this will not solve a problem that is embedded by other factors such as weak trademark laws.
Vested Interests in Deadly Medicines
IPN Opinion article
Counterfeit drugs are flooding into Africa, where up to one in three medicines can be fake, causing widespread suffering and death.
Attacking patents halts progress
IPN Opinion article
The UN's latest climate talks, in Accra, heard much talk about waiving patents on 'green', low-carbon and renewable products which will, somehow, magically, help fight climate change. The real barrier to new technology in most developing countries, however, is high tariff barriers ñ and these barriers are generally higher the poorer the country. What is worse, countries that ignore intellectual property rights chase away the foreign investors so badly needed for growth and for the transfer of technology.
Subsidies for the rich in poor countries
IPN Opinion article
Champions of local production see it as a way of decreasing transport costs, providing local jobs, increasing expertise, cutting dependence on foreign suppliers--thus lowering prices and magically improving access to drugs. But subsidies, protectionism and political criteria open the door to all sorts of bad policies and all sorts of bad medicines.
Drug price debate needs a dose of reality
IPN Opinion article
Certain NGOs claim that intellectual property is the root cause of the health crises faced by many poor countries. This is entirely bogus and is diverting attention from more important issues.
