bust Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=6626&z=163 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBif Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 This is so Thailand can save 25 million bucks a year? A lousy 25 million bucks? Isn't that what is devoured in the maw of corruption in LOS every day? Or hour? This Third World-style grandstanding is unworthy even of Thailand. I mean, if some degraded sub-Saharan country pulls this sort of stunt, who really cares? That's the sort of standard we all expect from them, whether we're "Left" or "Right". But with all the other weird goings-on in Thailand these days, I wouldn't advise anyone to consider moving there for any length of time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bust Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Are we reading the same story? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBif Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 er... I think so: "Thailandâ??s Generic Drugs Decision Draws Praise and Criticism By Ambika Ahuja/Associated Press/Bangkok January 31, 2007 A decision by Thailand to break the patents on two major commercial drugs to allow the sale of cheaper generic versions has been applauded by health activists but questioned by the pharmaceutical industry. On Monday, Thai Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said the government will allow the sale of generic versions of Kaletra, produced by the American health care company Abbott Laboratories to treat HIV/AIDS, and Plavix, a drug for heart patients sold by France's Sanofi-Aventis and US drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Mongkol said the action was justified under international trade rules because the drugs' high cost constituted a crisis for etc....." Sorry, the article doesn't mention the amount they figure they will "save" per year. I've seen the figure as $25,000,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Plavix doesn't make sense. It is basically just an expensive aspirin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bust Posted February 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 I guess the way I was looking at it was from the patients POV. Makes these medications affordable for more people. I think it's more about the pharmecutical companies losing out than what the Government might be saving. Good news for the average sick person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBif Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 My idea is that, even if one sympathizes with African elites for breaking international patents so that they have more dough left over for guns and Scotch and Benz's and hookers, for Thailand to do it is creepy. The money saved (stolen) is nothing for the Thai goverment, but they are prepared to adopt basket case states' methods. What similar methods will be next? Immediate expulsion of foreigners? I remember reading 5 or ten years ago a memoir from a former Canadian provincial Premier. During the period he was discussing - the '80s - there were three provinces run by the NDP, the Canadian-style Social Democratic party. The three Premiers met with the head of the main trade union confederation (a Brit of course) and they were discussing their rather serious provincial deficits. The union guy seriously asked, why not just refuse to pay? Well, the Premiers to their credit (they were men retaining at least some bourgeois honour and common sense) were shocked by this punk-ass Cuba-style gangster approach. Apparently honour (snigger away, white boys) and common sense, if they ever existed in Thailand, are a thing of the past. So, with respect, never mind "poor people" and whatnot. This is politcs and pathetic greed at the highest level. And it's creepy in my opinion. Finally, I trust that all of us horrified by the evil pharmaceutical companies make a moral point of refusing, say, penicillin when we catch a dose! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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