A link to “The poor stand to lose from Anti-Patent Crusades,” by Franklin Cudjoe, out April 30, 2008, with a free-market think tank in Ghana.
http://en.afrik.com/article13423.html
A selection: Patents are actually a critical part of the solution. They protect the financial incentives that drive pharmaceutical companies to create innovative medications in the first place. It takes an average of US$800 million and 10-15 years to bring a new drug to the market. Patents ensure that pharmaceutical companies can recoup that enormous investment.
If countries start breaking patents, though, firms lose out on sales. And they’re less able to finance the development of new cures. That’s a blow to the public health efforts of all countries, rich and poor. Ghana’s
health Minister told me that he fails to see how people could hold antagonistic positions against pharmaceutical companies, because in his own words “if drugs are being made, then people must be sick somewhere-it is not for charity”.
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