Posted on 10/23/2005 1:37:24 AM PDT by gondramB
Taiwan has responded to bird flu fears by starting work on its own version of the anti-viral drug, Tamiflu, without waiting for the manufacturer's consent.
Taiwan officials said they had applied for the right to copy the drug - but the priority was to protect the public.
Tamiflu, made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, cannot cure bird-flu but is widely seen as the best anti-viral drug to fight it, correspondents say.
Bird flu has killed at least 60 people in Asia since December 2003.
Scientists fear the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus could combine with human flu or mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans, triggering a flu pandemic.
Several countries have asked Roche for the right to make generic copies of Tamiflu.
Taiwan will produce six kg of its version of Tamiflu - enough, according to the government, to renew its stocks.
The government has said it will not market the drug commercially.
"It means we have shown our goodwill to Roche and we appreciate their patent. But to protect our people is the utmost important thing," he said. "
It seems to me like it would be in our best interest to try to head this off. We don't want to minimize the importance of saving lives but the American pharmecutical industry saves millions of lives and they need the revenue from sales to keep doing it.
Of course, our beloved Senator Schumer was immediately helpful
"In the US, senator Charles Schumer has threatened legislation compulsory to license Tamiflu unless Roche allowed generic producers to boost the number of pills in circulation."
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1598469,00.html
Sounds OK to me.....
Can't they just change it a little and get away with it?
I do enjoy seein a pharmaceutical getting bitch slapped, they are not gods
The thieving bastards could always buy some.
I have not a bit of problem with them making it, but I do have a bit of a problem with them not paying for it.
Its called theft, despite the justification. Taiwan should be sued and their government assets in America siezed for payment to the drug company that spent their hard earned cash to invent the drug.
Stealing just because you can is no excuse.
If you disbelieve in the sovereignty of Taiwan, that is. We're just about there anyhow, maybe we can bust them under some China law that 99.999% of Chinese just laugh at anyhow.
If I was in charge of a country and responsible for protecting my people I would do the same thing.
Maybe we should boycott all of their products, including Tamiflu.
Here is a clear case not of whim, but necessity. The drug is needed.
This is not theft. If the sovereign government does not NOT so act, they have been slack, it would be mis- or mal-feasance.
Do they owe the drug company some fee? Not by any law, nor by ethics. If you grant your neighbor the use of your lawnmower, you owe him no fee when you claim it back to mow your own lawn.
A grant of patent and a trade secret are two very different things. A trade secret CAN be stolen by the government of a sovereign nation. A patent can not. Because a patent is a revocable temporary grant of a property by the sovereign, and a trade secret is the sole property of the owner of it.
Did you enjoy seeing America get bitch-slapped on 9-11 too? They aren't gods either. Pharmaceutical companies try to invent or discover new medications that cure or prevent illnesses and disease. (They also try to get them approved through the Byzantine FDA.) Just exactly why do they deserve a bitch-slapping?
Here is a clear case not of whim, but necessity. The drug land formerly owned by white farmers in Zimbabwe is needed.
Roche cannot possibly make enough of the drug for the current demand. With the bird flu potentially coming and with countries correctly preparing for it if it does, Roche should be allowing others to manufacture it for a very small license fee.
On the other hand, Tamiflu is not very effective with the bird flu so we are really just waiting for a good vaccine anyway.
Another point is that Taiwan is just an over-populated small island. If the bird flu breaks out there, it will mass chaos and mass death in short order.
Taiwan was one of the orginal places where bird flu broke out several years ago. Almost the entire poultry flock was destroyed.
Maybe those other places could kindly lease their chemical plants to Roche for the usual fee, thereby increasing Roche's manufacturing capacity up to the "needed" levels. Nope.
Big Pharma can go to hell. They spend millions to undermine the nutriceutical industry. They got Ephedra banned for fewer than 100 deaths over 10 years when their products kill tens of thousands every single year. (Eggs kill more people every year than Ephedra ever did) They fought for years to get the CODEX approved in the EU to ban so-called "high potency" vitamins without a prescription (do you take Vitamin C over 100mg? In Europe soon you will need a MD prescription to do so), and push in every session of Congress for the same here. The idea is to ban pretty much everything your local GNC carries, and replace them with FDA-approved prescription versions at 10-100x the cost.
Why should the US get involved? Roche is a European holding company based in Zurich. Let the Swiss handle it if they want to.
Hmmm... if I ever figured out a vaccine for bird flu, I would just sell it to the highest bidder and let them worrry about it.
Rant on. Obviously you have a serious investment in "Nutriceuticals." Next time your child has pneumonia, you're going to go down to GNC and get some echinacea, right?
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