On Sunday 04 May 2003 7:51 pm, you wrote:
> i have been in the 3 of the philippine islands,
> mexico, and some of the carribean islands, we  have
> mission trips to hatti. my experence is that every
> drug companny sells are a far reduced rate to these
> countries than they do at home in the u.s. this is
> actual experience. i am not talking "a friend of a
> friend told me," or "the editorial page said this."
> this is actual experience.
>

Ken,

I was not talking about drugs which get rid of a hedache or numb depression
(some of which are now out of patent), I meant the drugs which (if you have a
certain condition) stop you from dying of that condition.

How do you feel aabout the Swiss company which makes Glivec (treats certain
forms of leukaemia - but you must continue taking the drug)? They received
FDA approval in record time largely due to an extremely successful trial in
South Korea. Once the FDA approval was given the free doses for the drug was
withdrawn and the full price ($1300 per month) was imposed. Given the average
wage in Korea and the fact these were terminally ill people (so unlikely to
be in employment), the drug company are saying  "thank you for your help in
getting FDA approval (which will be worth billions to us over the next 30
years) - you can die now".

According to Cipla (the Indian manufacturer who makes "generic" versions of
other life saving drugs) the Glivec capsules can be made, packaged, shipped
for about 80 cents each (with a profit). Incidentally, Beth, the whole Indian
generics industry is to be shutdown next year, the Indian parliament finally
buckled under extreme US pressure threatening draconian trade sanctions -
just leaves Brazil as a holdout.

I watched an extremely interesting program on this the other night:-

http://www.channel4.co.uk/health/microsites/D/dying_for_drugs/index.html

It seemed very well researched, and the web site provides links to many
primary sources to ratify the information given in the programme. At least
none of the drug companies have issued writs against the programme makers
yet, and they could probably afford to do so if they thought the damning
information was untrue.

Cheers

Deri