Battleangel

Brazil’s lower house of government on Wednesday approved a bill that would suspend patents on all antiretroviral drugs and allow Brazilian companies to produce generic versions of the drugs if the Brazilian government cannot negotiate price reductions or licensing agreements with patent-holding pharmaceutical companies.

The decision to break company patents does not violate international accords, because global patent regulations stipulate a patent can be broken for the benefit of public health.

Brazil began distributing free AIDS drugs in late 1997 to combat its spread. Eight years later, Brazil is recognized and lauded as a world leader in the fight against AIDS.

Last month, Brazil turned down more than $ 40 million in aid from the United States to combat AIDS and HIV, because it would not oppose the commercial sex industry as the United States stipulated, in order to receive the money.

Source: Medical News Today, Bloomberg, Politinfo

The industry counters by alleging that “actions will undermine initiatives seeking new and better treatment for AIDS” and that “respect to intellectual property is important as it leads to more investments.” This is getting old. It has been contested many times before and it is no longer an accepted truth. In fact, in this Orwellian world that we live in, on closer examination, the exact opposite seems likely. Intellectual Property is the only thing stifling creativity, innovation, and like with HIV / AIDS actually killing people.