[india-drug] E-drug: Affordable access to essential drugs

[Edrug <e-drug@usa.healthnet.org>]

E-drug: Affordable access to essential drugs
---------------------------------------------

[Copied from Edrug. Thanks----------SS]

U Schuklenk, RE Ashcroft. 2002. Affordable access to essential drugs in
developing countries: conflicts between ethical and economic
imperatives.
Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 27(2): 179-195.

Abstract
Recent economic and political advances in developing countries on the
African continent and South East Asia are threatened by the rising
death and morbidity rates of HIV/AIDS. In the first part of this paper
we explain the reasons for the absence of affordable access to
essential AIDS medication.
In the second part we take a closer look at some of the pivotal
frameworks relevant for this situation and undertake an ethical
analysis of these frameworks. In the third part we discuss a few of the
proposed solutions to the problem and conclude with an argument in
support of our preferred course of action. In this article we argue for
compulsory licensing of essential AIDS medications in the current
conditions of public health emergency.  We argue on broadly
consequentialist grounds that compulsory licensing is preferable both
morally and pragmatically to the alternatives, notably the currently
offered price cuts and drug donation schemes.

U Schuklenk
Head Division of Bioethics
Co-Editor: Bioethics | Developing World Bioethics
University of the Witwatersrand
Faculty of Health Sciences
Johannesburg, Wits 2050
South Africa
www.wits.ac.za/bioethics
www.udo-schuklenk.org


________________________________________________________________________
Want to sell your car? advertise on Yahoo Autos Classifieds. It's Free!!
       visit http://in.autos.yahoo.com
The INDIA-DRUG discussion group is a partnership between SATELLIFE
(www.healthnet.org), WHO Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy
(www.who.ch), and the Delhi Society for the Promotion of the
Rational Use of Drugs (DSPRUD) in India.

To send a message to india-drug, write to: india-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe india-drug OR unsubscribe india-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: india-drug-help@usa.healthnet.org