Or the case of Thailand compulsory licensing vs. right wing pharmaceutical lobbyists
This article was written in May 2007, revised in June 2007 and minor edits were made on 17/11/08. I decided to republish it after my attention was drawn by the Wisdom of Whores to a recent opinion piece written by Roger Bate for the New York Times. In his latest article for the NYT, Bate conflates generic and counterfeit medicine finding another occasion to held high the flag of a sometimes unscrupulous pharmaceutical industry. The text below is a …

The Sunday Times reports that “The National Health Service is providing dying cancer patients with drugs that are five times less effective than those available privately and is refusing to treat them if they try to buy medicines themselves.” For example, Sutent, and anti cancer drug used to treat kidney cancer that extend patient’s lives by 6 months but cost £2,200 a month compared to the standard NHS drug that cost £800 a month is not available on the NHS. Likewise, Erbitux, costing about £3,000 a month but more potent …