[e-drug] Re: US compulsory licensing proposal for medicines (contd)

["Scott Hillstrom" <scott.hillstrom@analyticorp.co.nz>]

E-drug: Re: US compulsory licensing proposal for medicines (contd)
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In reply to Marcus M. Reidenberg's comment that compulsory licensing risks
export into wealthy markets.

What attracts black market products into markets is the spread between cost
and market price.  Cocaine is cheap to produce but draws a large enough
profit to attract entrepreneurs and investors to exploit the profit margin.
No amount of law enforcement can stop them.  If we can't stop Cocaine, we
can't stop drugs that are legal to posses and use.  They *will* be produced
somewhere and sold in markets where profits can be maximized.  Compulsory
licensing may have an affect on the global black market but it won't create
it.  So, depriving the suffering and dying in a country of essential drugs
by denying compulsory licensing won't prevent black marketing of medicines.


In reply to Otto R. Scholtz's comments:

It isn't that e-druggers generally oppose the profit motive or capitalism.
It is that many object to its abuse.  Unregulated capitalism as oppressive
as any other form or unrestrained power.  Because pharmaceuticals can
relieve suffering and are so cheap to make once developed, an unusual
conflict arises between relief of suffering and maximizing marginal profits.
This tension raises legitimate questions.  For example, whether patents
should be protected at the price of the suffering and death of millions of
the poor.  Good arguments on all sides have their limits.  For example, R&D
risk is not discouraged by the sale of medicine to people who would
otherwise not buy it from patent holders.  In the end, whoever has the most
power gets his way.  So it is hard to fault those using their collective
voice to match the immense financial and political resources of Big Pharma.
Branding them as anti-capitalist or unrealistic idealists fails to
comprehend the complex issues upon which the lives of millions depend.
Rather than add to the 'smoke', let's try to see through it.

Cheers,

Scott D. Hillstrom, J.D.
527 Marquette Ave.
Suite 1800
Minneapolis, Minnesota   55402-1319
scott.hillstrom@analyticorp.co.nz
+(612) 332-8063; Mobile +(612) 730-5884; Fax (312) 803-0175



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