Thursday, October 27, 2005

Hearts of Stone

DisintellectualProperty
AndromedaVille




"ROCHE, the Swiss pharamaceuticals giant, is under pressure to relax the patents on Tamiflu, its top-selling flu medicine, after GlaxoSmithKline said that it would give away the licensing rights to a rival treatment for free.

Roche has so far resisted calls to hand over the patents to Tamiflu, which is expected to generate sales of more than $1 billion (£560 million) this year, arguing that the ten-stage manufacturing process is complicated and dangerous. Several countries, incuding India and Vietnam, have threatened to break the patents protecting the treatment to ensure enough supplies in the event of a flu pandemic."


So here's my question.......

What should be done to any Corporate Entity that won't loosen up its patent rights to help prevent a world-wide pandemic?

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And don't go crying/cheering for Glaxo just yet. After all, their competing 'product' only grossed $10 million last year in comparison, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to view their act of selflessness rather cynically.

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