Pharma Industry, Be Happy--Somebody Cares
By Lisa Conte
An Indian court case is once again pitting western pharmaceutical companies against the lives and health of poor people in the developing world. "Quarter of a million people urge Novartis to drop case against India," reads a January 29, 2007 press release from Doctors Without Borders.
Inflammatory headlines and angry NGOs anxious to bash big pharma proclaim that greed and inhumane practices are the pattern for the multi-national drug monopolies.
They remind us how Novartis sued Nelson Mandela in 1997 for signing a law that allowed South Africa to import cheaper HIV-fighting medications. These destructive battles are the predictable and unnecessary results of shortsighted pharmaceutical industry strategies in the developing world.
Big pharma's choice to argue for an overbroad interpretation of their patents make it easy to portray them as profiteers who restrict delivery of crucial medicines to the developing world. It doesn't have to be that way. Intellectual property rights and access to affordable medicines in less developed countries are not mutually exclusive.
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