Patents Impeding:
Patents meant to provide incentive for increased innovation through investment, but the plethora of strings attached from patent right restricting researchers' ability to conduct their work efficiently as result of decreased access to essential materials to increasing medication prices in developing countries purely because big pharma is more focused on their global profits (keep them high so developed countries don't ask for decreased prices) rather than attending to the health needs of the country seem to outweigh the so-called benefits of patents. Liked the idea of the award system in which big pharma companies would only be awarded based on their discovery of new medicines
Faria article:
The silencing of discussion around treatment options for HIVIAIDS in Ghana as a means of saving money creates what one may call a tunnel vision regarding the most efficient way of dealing with the virus. The Ghanian campaign 'Stop AIDS Love Life!' centers on
with treatment options. The current sole focus on prevention through behavior change reinforces existing stereotypes on females' role in society by making women out to be the main perpetuators of the virus and should therefore be the ones taking care of not only themselves but also society. These enforced gender roles prevent the country from
their stance on prevention, which Professor Faria says can only do so much.
Times article:
Infected prisoners treated inhumanely as seen in the lack of access to essential Hep C medications, but even when new antiviral drugs enter the market they still don't have access because of high prices that the prisons do not have the funds to afford. Big pharma companies continue to make the same excuses seen in patents article, saying that they need the money to continue making drugs (in reality, profits remain high even with competition-driven decrease in prices, so the companies may simply be saying this to keep their incentive for creating new drugs) Even with short-term practices of prisons denying medication to save money and states joining prisoners in hospitals with discounted drugs, still need to look at the long-term in which taxpayers will still end up paying a fortune to fund Medicare and other insurance programs supporting the prisoners once released. Similar to patents article as drug companies like Gilead are refusing to reduce Hep C medication prices for prisons because then they would have to do the same for other
profits over the poor's increased health concern