selective genocide against the poor

Impact of globalisation on Healththe ten largest pharmaceutical makers, who account for 500 billion dollars of world health spending a year and whose 205 billion dollars in pre-tax profits were more than the combined profits of the 490 other Fortune 500 companies. Officials from all sides debate the impact of drug companies' patenting, "intellectual property," pricing and new product development strategies on global public health. These policies, according to Nobel Prize winning economist and former World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stieglitz "are condemning billions of the world's poorest citizens to death." The key to the power of Big Pharma over the world drug market is the TRIPS agreement (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) negotiated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) between its 150 signatory nations. TRIPS requires member states to grant drug companies patents for the exclusive manufacture of new drugs for at least 20 years. This enables them to maximize profits through artificially high monopoly pricing, unaffordable to all but the most affluent nations. Drug companies often hold 240 patents on the same drug and, in a process called "ever-greening," obtain extended patents whenever they can invent a new use for a drug, however small its therapeutic value. A spokesman for the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) rationalizes charging as much as 100 times manufacturing costs as necessary to recoup the considerable costs of developing a new drug. Yet during the decade of the 1990s drug companies made a 25% profit on turnover (compared to only 3.3% by other consumer sectors), while spending only 12.5% on research but 36% on administration and marketing. Patents prevent the manufacture of generic versions of these drugs at prices affordable to the Global South. Yet, as a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman points out, under TRIPS, a signatory government can authorize "parallel imports" and "compulsory licensing" to obtain drugs at affordable prices during health emergencies. President Bush, a staunch ally of Big Pharma, threatened to use these provisions against Bayer during the Anthrax scare of 2001, but less powerful nations confront highly restrictive language and frequent legal challenges by the big pharmaceutical firms. The President of Cipla, an Indian generic drug manufacturer founded with Gandhi's blessings to free the subcontinent from British pharmaceuticals, describes drug patenting as "selective genocide" against the poor.