Drugs & Big Pharma, Revisited
January 10th, 2008 by 5cents
We’ve mentioned before (HERE) about third world countries breaking drug patents in order to reproduce treatments at lower cost for delivery to their citizens. India and Brazil lead the way in these fields. Often, the large drug companies remonstrated claiming such practices attack the very processes that came up with the new treatments, namely, diverting funds from research & development. At the Womb, we’ve always firmly stood by countries who felt that their citizen’s need for widely available medication outweighed concerns of intellectual property and corporate greed.
Now, however, comes news that drug companies may be spending more than twice the amount of money on advertising and marketing than they do on R&D. In other words, they spend more on letting the customer know that Viagra might Read On! »
Popularity: 30% [?]
For those of you who keep abreast of current affairs, you’ll remember the big brouhaha about poisonous pet-food, toxic children’s toys, and all manner of lethal goods being imported from China. Since China probably manufactures about 98% of all goods available in the States (or anywhere else in the world for that matter), it seems prudent not to piss them off by celebrating their persona non grata. Case in point; The recent awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to the Dalai Lama (whom the Chinese government really don’t like). The cartoon inside (hit the “Read On” link) illustrates it perfectly.
To be more specific, the title should read, “Outsourcing; The Consequence of Professional Consumers” but it felt a bit long-winded. Anyway, the question of outsourcing never seems to leave the front page. Indian news media generally opines on its positive influence on the Indian and World economies whereas US media is the opposite, generally favoring a negative approach to the subject. I thought I’d chime in with my thoughts.
A little something Papa 5cents sent me from the sub continent.