Getting tired of being mugged in the pharmacy line? Brazil is. They want the price Thailand pays, not the American price or the middle of the road price Merck offered them on the AIDS medication Efavirenz.
Over patented AIDS drugs, Merck is seeking to have Brazil listed on the US copyright violators list. The New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant, Merck holds the patents on AIDS drugs that Brazil provides free to its population in need.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that Brazil will issue a "compulsory license" to bypass Merck's intellectual property patent for the drug Efavirenz. The compulsory license allows for the manufacture or purchase of generic versions of drugs, with minute royalties to the patent holder.
How do you feel about patented American drugs being sold around the world for less than Americans pay for them? Post your comments below.
Ann Marie Dwyer is an internationally-published, award-winning citizen journalist with bylines on Helium, One World Net, Yahoo! News and Global Exchange. Her articles appear in corporate newsletters, archive history web sites and in news print.
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