WORLD-TYRANT WORLD 09 29 14 2

  

WORLD-TYRANT WORLD 09 29 14 2 

No treatment Ebola, high prices for hepatitis C drugs: Time to change the pharmaceutical research system [Excerpts] 

Dr. Mohga M Kamal-Yanni, Wednesday 24 Sep 2014 

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/111544/Opinion/No-treatment-Ebola,-high-prices-for-hepatitis-C-dr.aspx

Ebola and hepatitis C are both examples of the monopoly ownership system that allows pharmaceutical companies to control R&D and the price of medicines. 

There are currently 17 diseases identified by the WHO as “neglected diseases” because of the lack of investment in R&D to prevent or treat them 

The history of HIV has clearly shown that the most effective mechanism to decrease prices of medicines is through generic competition.  In the year 2001, the world *ignored the millions dying* of HIV when the price of the triple cocktail treatment was US $10,000 per patient per year. 

Now that generic competition exists in this market, the price has now dropped to around US $100, which has enabled *10 million* people to now be on treatment.  At the initial high price, these people would have been dying or dead. 

Unfortunately, such competition will be difficult because the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Agreement of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement enables monopoly rights over new medicines.  As a result, the company that developed the drug, and thus owns the patents, can charge whatever price the market will bear. 

However, governments can use mechanisms such as compulsory licensing, which are legal under TRIPS, to break the patent monopoly and allow generic companies to compete and manufacture medicines marketed at lower prices. 

Ebola and hepatitis C are examplesof diseases that would be treatable if the global system of incentives for R&D was designed with the interests of public health in mind.  Instead, priorities and financing decisions for R&D are left to the market so that pharmaceutical companies continue producing the medicines that can make the highest profits rather than the therapies that are desperately needed for public health. 

As a result, new medicines will continue to be sold at the highest prices, and won’t be affordable to patients in developing countries *and* increasingly to patients in affluent countries. 

The time has come for all countries to commit a percentage of their GDP to medical research, providing a fund for the development of health technologies that would benefit all. 

Such a financing mechanism would give the decision on priorities for R&D and on affordability of prices back to the public, where it belongs. 

Sep 29, 12:13 PM EDT 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_VIDEO_BLAME?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-29-12-13-23

CAUGHT IN THE ACT?  VIDEOS OF POLICE CAN MISLEAD 

and 

Sep 29, 12:15 PM EDT 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLICE_VIDEO_BLAME_GLANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-29-12-15-22

EXAMPLES OF 2014 VIDEOS SHOWING POLICE USING FORCE 

Sep 29, 11:52 AM EDT 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UNITED_NATIONS_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-29-11-52-56

SYRIA: US DUAL POLICY IS RECIPE FOR MORE VIOLENCE [Excerpts] 

Syria's foreign minister on Monday blasted the United States' [The World TYrant’s] “dual policy" of 

striking at some militants in Syria while 

providing money, weapons and training to others, 

calling it a recipe for more violence and terrorism. 

Walid al-Moallem said such behavior creates a "fertile ground" for the continued growth of extremism in countries including Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. 

He addressed the annual U.N. General Assembly