Points:
Drug-makers should provide generous discounts for poor countries who cannot afford expensive vaccines - but: the pharmaceutical industry faces pricing constraints
- but: some firms have adopted “differential pricing” schemes that set lower prices in poor countries
- Problem: cheap drugs intended for the poorest may be sold at a profit to the urban middle classes, or shipped overseas to rich countries
- Solution: drug-makers can do after-market checks on distributors and pharmacists to make sure they are selling the right products
- Solution: different packaging can be used to distinguish cheaper versions of the same drug
- but: the cost of bringing new drugs to market has soared
- Cause: patents run out in a few years
- Cause: big drug firms do most things in-house, from research to manufacturing, sales and distribution
- Solution: many activities can be put out to biotech start-ups, contract research organizations, independent drug-development firms, and freelance sales organizations
- because: Poor people cannot afford drugs, and drug companies make investments that yield the highest returns. (www.globalissues.org)
- because: drug-makers can't possibly survive without recognising their responsibilities to the poor (Yamada (2008) )
- but: drug companies reap most of their profits from rich developed countries
- but: competition from producers of generic drugs has reduced profits
- but: the market for drugs is growing in developing countries
- because: the middle classes in those countries have expanded
- because: poor nations lack the money to compensate drug firms for developing vaccines
- Effect: it takes 15 to 20 years for a new vaccine to become available at prices affordable in the neediest places (search.ebscohost.com)
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Email: goodpoint@elc.polyu.edu.hk
