[Nettime-bold] IP in the Age of Anthrax

[Curt Hagenlocher <curth@motek.com>]

The Canadian government has ordered a million pills of Cipro
from a pharmaceutical manufacturer not licensed to produce it.
Although the White House has (for now) promised to obtain the
medication from its patentholder - Bayer - there are doubts
that the company can produce more than 200 million pills.  This
is enough for 1.7 million patients, but the US Government is
looking to be able to handle as many as 12 million.

Already, some in the US (such as NY Senator Charles Schumer)
are looking to follow the Canadian example.

Of course, when it's the poor of the third world dying of AIDS,
then it's a different story.  In fact, the very antibiotic
being feverishly stockpiled by government and private citizens
alike, is also used to treat the opportunistic infections to
which AIDS sufferers are prone.  When South Africa ordered
generic versions of other AIDS drugs, its government was sued
by no less than 39 pharmaceutical companies.  Will Canada (and
the US, if it follows the same course) be similarly taken to
court?  If it raises the awareness of this issue among the
general populace, one could almost hope so.


In English:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/644715.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/news/644453.asp

In German:
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,163220,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,163211,00.html

--
Curt Hagenlocher
curth@motek.com

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