Forum: Politics
Topic: Good News for Fair Use!
started by: Darth Liberus

Posted by Darth Liberus on Jul. 12 2002,21:43
< The Register : Fighting the Pigopolists with bricks not bluster >

There are some people in this world that have a bit of sense in their head...

last night, by the way, my dad labeled me a "thief" for suggesting that Brazil was right to tell Roche to < take its patent for Nelfinavir and shove it up its ass. >  He started foaming at the mouth about Intellectual Property etc. etc. etc...

wtf is wrong with people?
Posted by veistran on Jul. 13 2002,18:37
It's a very slippery slope as far as governments violating patents is concerned, however; the concept is not without precident. Now understandably it is an epidemic, and somewhat unorthodox measures will have to be resorted to at some point, but I think that in general this well just cause more problems for Brazil in the long run. Just my two cents on that.

And we definately could use more Rick Boucher's in the government.
Posted by Wiley on Jul. 14 2002,04:31
I actually know of several cases where patents have been knowingly broken because the amount of gain would far outweigh the consequences.  Samsung knowingly violated a patent held by the company my father works for and recently lost a 50 million dollar lawsuit for doing so.  They gained about 100 million in sales by breaking the patent.  Sometimes it's a shame that capitalism kicks the shit outta the legal system.  My father told me he would've done the same thing as Samsung though  ...above all he's a businessman.

Just don't fool yourself into thinking they are doing this to help people  ...money is always at the end of the paper trail.
Posted by Bozeman on Jul. 14 2002,06:39
Exactly, they are helping their citizens.  Citizens make their economy go.

Helping citizens helps the government.  w00t.  Plus less people die of a HORRIBLE DISEASE.
Posted by veistran on Jul. 14 2002,09:02
Just an interesting aside, I was speaking with a Brazillian friend of mine, and he mentioned that Brazil provides AIDs medication to it's people for free.
Posted by Wiley on Jul. 15 2002,06:21
Sounds communist to me.  I say we bomb them!
Posted by Darth Liberus on Jul. 16 2002,23:52
there can be other things at the end of the paper trail as well.

in Brazil's case:

- AIDS is pandemic in Brazil.

- the government of Brazil wants to slow/stop the spread of AIDS.  There are many fundamental reasons to do this, not just one.

- Nelfinavir is by far the most effective drug for their purposes.

- Brazil calculates the cost of manufacturing the drug themselves in order to have a good idea of what they should be paying for it.

- Negotiations with Roche to obtain very large quantities of the drug at an affordable price fail.

- Brazil decides to go ahead and manufacture the drug because intellectual property rights do not outweigh human rights.

- Roche offers an additional 40% discount to Brazil.  Brazil accepts.


I guarantee you that Roche is still making a profit at the heavily discounted price.  The markup on drugs is insane.  The argument is always that they need such high markups to pay back the cost of R&D, but in Brazil's case they're looking at such an enormous volume that they don't need an astronomical markup.

< Sources >
Posted by Bozeman on Jul. 17 2002,00:04
Quote (Darth Liberus @ 16 July 2002,19:52)
- Brazil decides to go ahead and manufacture the drug because intellectual property rights do not outweigh human rights.

Exact-fucking-ly
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