Battleangel

Just a clever propaganda trick by the pharmaceutical industry or genuine concern? Well, Nature (Counterfeit pharmaceuticals: Murder by medicine. By: Aldhous, Peter. Vol. 434 Issue 7030, p132) had an exposé about how people in lesser developed countries (LDCs) (SE Asia and Africa mostly) often suffer badly because of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

Aldhous did say that he in fact bought effective counterfeits during his field test of the assumptions that later paved the way for the article. But he dismissed it as “him being a westerner” and that they kept selling him the real deal. Most of all that proves that the problem isn’t counterfeiting per se, but rather the almost innate human desire for scamming his fellow man in a capitalist system. The problem lies in the reseller chain. They very well know what they are selling and it is their demand for useless medicines that keeps the market going. It should not be interpreted in such as way that the solution is shutting down the factories. But I guess that the advertisers behind Nature feel differently. According to them poor countries would be better off if they died from not being able to buy their expensive drugs instead of taking a chance with counterfeits.
The idea that they could somehow help save millions of lives by supporting these counterfeit plants, quality control or lowering their own prices of course never crossed their minds. The whole idea and the only viable way out is safeguarding against substandard medicines while keeping the prices low. Something that I feel didn’t come through in Nature. So this is why I supply this addendum.

As much as I usually praise Nature’s clarity, I must point out that they are consequently avoiding the issue of patents and the pharmaceutical industry’s stranglehold on the LDCs. They conveniently confuse the public by equating counterfeit drugs with a gang on thugs selling placebo and missing the big picture. I.e. that it is the ridiculous prices and the patent fascism that is the cause of the problem in the first place. Their stance is just as awkward as if I were to claim no one died from counterfeit drugs at all. Of course people suffer and die. And still, counterfeit drugs ARE needed as long as western bio-tech companies keep robbing the lesser developed countries (as well as the Western world I might add). We all suffer at the hands of these corporate thugs.

Side note: Btw, it’s a hassle that Nature’s online archive is subscription based. Nor can I access their articles from the usual full text databases since they have them under 12 months embargo. It’s their loss really. Now I can just misquote and misrepresent them and few will notice.