>Chip Melford asked: "So, how does tweaking a substance protected by patent >.....achieve anything other than broken law or five or more? > >The answer was there in the original post: > >Quote: > The potential benefits and geopolitical implications of this approach >are almost limitless. Imagine a world where the most downtrodden can be >rescued from the ravages of chronic disease that now beset them, generation >after generation. A world where they don't droop and languish, where their >energies are not consumed and exhausted in the struggle for survival. A >world where their children are born to healthy mothers, with all the proven >advantages for future development, both physically and mentally, that such a >birth provides. Imagine a world where the preventable deaths and epidemics >that break down societal bonds, devastate communities, cripple local >economies, destroy families and make any kind of political action almost >impossible are a thing of the past. >Unquote.
Health is not just the absence of disease, or the product of better pills, or any pills. It's not so much rampant disease that the most downtrodden are most trodden down by but poverty, which isn't cured by pills. The dieases of poverty are a subset, not a cause. Poverty isn't just happenstance (or incompetence), it's a function of an inequitable world economic system, not just a by-product but an integral part of the resource extraction and wealth concentration of the corporate-style globanomics that has seen all the poor countries getting poorer in the last 20 years. Eg.: http://www.cepr.net/globalization/scorecard_on_globalization.htm The Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000 - Twenty Years of Diminished Progress By Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker, Egor Kraev and Judy Chen July 11, 2001 Similarly with food: http://snipurl.com/rcij [Biofuel] Bushfood http://snipurl.com/rcik [Biofuel] Myth: More US aid will help the hungry http://snipurl.com/rcim Re: [Biofuel] US Foreign aid Food Dumping [Aid] Maintains Poverty http://snipurl.com/rcig [Biofuel] The US and Foreign Aid Assistance http://snipurl.com/rcih [Biofuel] Famines as Commercial Opportunity http://snipurl.com/rcii [Biofuel] Famine As Commerce http://snipurl.com/rcin [Biofuel] Inequality in wealth Nearly three billion people live on less than $2 a day, a miserable figure that doesn't begin to tell the story. Rushing in with pills to cure their ills is a well-known no-no among development workers who work with Primary Health Care. A term used in PHC is "deferred mortality". Sounds good eh? Death postponed. An example would be using antibiotics to cure a child of a disease only for the child to die of starvation a year later. That's not to say that there aren't cases where using modern drugs might be appropriate, but it needs a systems approach, not a silver bullet. Anyway the very poor would probably be the last to receive any such benefits, if ever. The title of the article is better, "Shakeup for Big Pharm". If this approach hurts the big pharmaceutical companies and helps to loosen the corporate grip on patenting and intellectual property rights it will probably have done the poor more good than the pills ever will. Everyone, not just the poor. All best Keith >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Chip Mefford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org> >Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 1:12 AM >Subject: [Biofuel] I don't get it, (was: Shakeup for Big Pharm) > > > > Bob Molloy wrote: > > > Hi All, > > > Something to ponder, a helluva shakeup for Big Pharm. > > > Regards, > > > Bob. > > > > > (grumble, I hate formatted text) > > > > > Medical Breakthrough Could Change Global Politics > > > By Chris Floyd > > > t r u t h o u t | UK Correspondent > > > > snip > > > > >Tuesday 16 January 2007 > > BIG SNIP > > > The approach is called "ethical pharmaceuticals," and it was unveiled on >January 2 > > > by Sunil Shaunak, professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College, >and Steve > > > Brocchini of the London School of Pharmacy, the Guardian reports. Their >team of > > > scientists in India and the UK, financed by the prestigious Wellcome >with technical > > > assistance from the UK government, > > --key point here-- > > > have developed a method of making small but significant changes to the >molecular > > > structure of existing drugs, thereby transforming them into new >products, circumventing > > > the long-term patents used by the corporate giants of Big Pharma to keep >prices - and profits - high. > > > > BIG SNIP > > > > > > Okay, so the 'new' drug is clearly derived from the old drug, and > > derivatives are usually covered under pretty much all 'intellectual > > property' law, so I don't see how this would accomplish anything. > > > > Note, that I am totally and completely opposed to patented drugs, > > and if possible even more opposed to patented code, and the concept > > of patented organisms just makes my head spin. The whole concept is > > totally broken, and doesn't need revisiting, it all needs to be scrapped > > and a new system instituted. However, that isn't likely to happen > > any time soon, if at all. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
